Georgia's Brother
by banannabee
Summary: Fang has a secret. Except for his best friend who found out accidentally, no one even knows what it is. But when Max, his little sister's babysitter, moves in a few streets away, will she figure him out, now that she's more involved in his life than ever? Max's POV. R&R! Fax! Eggy! No wings, AU. Touchy topics. New chapter as of 10/23/15!
1. I Babysit the Cutest Girl Ever

**So, as anyone who has read my previous story, Anything But Average, would know, this is my new story: Georgia's Brother. I threw around quite a few plot lines for this story, and eventually went with this one. I even cast a vote, but it was a tie. So, I went with the one story that had a lot of good points from reviewers.**

**It's deep, but then again, so were the other plots. It was a choice of either: Iggy becoming blind, which was my first choice, Fang have an addiction to crack/alcohol (which I decided not to even put in a vote number, for)a, or Max being sexually abused. Don't ****steal those ideas! I might still act on the one about Iggy! I'm thinking I could co-write it with a good friend of mine. I find that not enough stories are about Max's friends having problems, and her having to deal with it.**

**But I decided that this one was the way to go for me.**

**I hope you guys like the first installment! :)**

**Read on, and please review!**

**Disclaimer: James Patterson owns Maximum Ride.**

**By the way, this isn't about Max being sexually abused. Way overdone.**

* * *

"Hey, Georgia," I said, picking her up as I walked in the door. I slid my bag over my shoulder and wrapped my other arm around the little black haired beauty I was holding. I hugged her tight, and then set her down in the living room. I checked my watch. I was right on time. 2:30.

"Hi Max! Are we going to do something fun today?" Georgia said, pushing a lock of her hair out of her brown eyes. I smiled.

"Don't we always?" I said.

"Yes…" she said, and laughed.

I looked around. The house was a bit of a mess, and she looked really energetic today. I'd have to give her some health food. The dishes weren't done, either, and there was a basket of laundry. Mrs. Worthers must've had an early morning.

I had a mental list of what needed to be done, so I set to work.

"Hey, Georgia, honey, you wanna watch a movie?" I asked her. I sat down on the blue couch with the basket of laundry. I looked at Georgia and she sat next to me.

"Can we watch Pocahontas?" she asked me, her gorgeous eyes wide. My heart swelled. I was so lucky to be able to baby sit such a sweet little girl.

"Of course."

I went to the movie shelf and found the VHS version. I stuffed it in the tape player and fast-forwarded through all the commercials. Once it was set to go, I swept up Georgia and set her down in the middle of the couch. She giggled as I tickled her, and when I stopped, she immediately started to sing along with the men boarding Ratcliffe's ship. It's safe to make the assumption that we watched this movie a lot.

I sat down a few feet away from her, on the couch, humming along out of tune as I folded Georgia's brother's laundry. Out of all the times I've done laundry at this house, most times it was his. He never seemed to do his own chores.

Once I was done with that, I brought the basket with all of his folded laundry up to his room. I set it outside his door on the ground. Georgia's brother was at practice right now. He stayed after school everyday for hours with different events. He played soccer in the fall, he did basketball in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. On top of that, he had math team and homework club.

I certainly wouldn't be able to handle all of that on my schedule. But, I'm thankful that he can, because that means I get to swoop in while Georgia's family is away at school and work and take care of her. I stay until nine o'clock most nights. I don't mind most of the time, but I do miss being able to hang out with my friends. JJ and Sam always hang out on nights that I can't, and when I can hangout, they're busy. Figures.

_Well, I guess that's not a problem anymore,_ I thought as I picked up the dishes from all around the house. I set them in the sink and started to wash them with warm, soapy water. My mom wanted to move closer to her work in Kokas, so we decided to move two towns closer. Actually, we were moving in a few streets away from the Worthers. She heard it was a great neighborhood, probably much better than our current one. We lived with drug addicts a few houses away.

I checked the clock and realized it had only been forty-five minutes since I started working. The dishes were all done now, and I set to cleaning up the rest of the house. I went into the cleaning closet and grabbed the broom, the swiffer, and the duster.

Once I'd put all of Georgia's toys and Mr. Worthers' books away, I started in on the floors. It took twenty minutes to finish them, and once I was done I set Georgia down at the table for her snack. She'd finished the movie five minutes before I was done, and was waiting patiently at the table for me to finish up.

I grabbed some carrots and celery out of the fridge and sliced them up. She loved celery, but I was trying to get her used to eating carrots.

"They're good for my eyes," she said and sighed. I laughed, and sat down across from her, watching to make sure she ate all of them.

"That's right." I said. She bit into one and cringed. I tried getting her mind off the carrots. "Hey Georgia, did you know I'm moving really close to you in a few weeks?" I said.

"Yay!" Georgia screamed. Grinning, she shoved the rest of a carrot in her mouth. "Are we going to be neighbors?" she asked.

I nodded. "In a way," I said. She crunched on another carrot with glee.

"I'm so happy!"

I grinned. All of her carrots were gone now. Inside, I triumphantly raised my fist.

"Alright, you done?" I said, motioning to her plate. She nodded, and then stuck out her tongue for me to see. "Good job! Now, what time is it?"

She looked at the clock and scrunched up her cute little five-year-old nose. "It's…. four o'clock."

"Good job, but you know that's not what I meant," I said, giving her the look. She pouted for a minute.

"But I hate cleaning my room!" she said.

"Me too, but we all have to do it. Otherwise we'd smell gross!" I said, and ran to tickle her in the chair. I bent down and she shied away as I tickled her. She'd tried not to laugh for a few seconds, but then grinned.

"Race you to my room!" she yelled, running away from me. I laughed, and raced her up there. I let her beat me by quite a few feet, just so she would feel better about having to clean her room.

"Beat ya," she taunted, crossing her arms over her chest. I smiled.

"You did, you beat me. You beat the unbeatable Mackenzie Strider! I can't believe it! Oh no! I'm dying of shame, cough, cough, help me!" I said, dramatically flinging a hand to my forehead and sinking to the ground. I stuck out my tongue for good measure. Georgia gasped.

"Oh no! She's dead!" She threw her little body over me and slapped my face a few times. I revived myself, and sat up coughing.

"You saved me!" I said in false awe. "Thank you! Thank you!"

"Ahem."

I heard Georgia's brother behind me.

"Oh, hey, Fang. You're home early," I said, standing up and pulling down my shirt. I laughed to myself on the inside. I moved my unruly blond hair behind my ear.

"Yeah, club was cancelled. You can go, if you want," he said, moving into the room to hug Georgia with a hello. She grinned up at her big brother, and I smiled. I could tell he was a great brother.

"Yeah, alright, I'll just finish up cleaning her room with her, then I'll be on my way out."

He nodded and moved out of the room and down the hall with his black leather jacket slung over his shoulder. He opened the door to his room and picked up the basket of laundry. I turned to Georgia.

"Do you have to leave?" she said. I nodded.

"But first, let's fast tidy your room! Quick! Quick!"

* * *

I set my car keys on the table in the entryway and grabbed an apple from the bowl. Munching on the apple, I made my way upstairs to my bedroom. There were boxes everywhere in the house, and I tried not to focus on them.

I wasn't overly sad about leaving the house. I didn't really have a deep attachment to it, but I would miss all the people I'd be leaving behind. Sam and JJ were some of my closer friends, and I think I'd even miss a few teachers. Well, bothering them, anyways. I don't think I'd miss the teachers themselves, but some of them were a lot of fun to harass.

I stepped over a big box to get to my bed. I flopped down and let out a breath of air. I would definitely call this one of the more busy days of babysitting. I closed my eyes for a few minutes, and when I woke up it was seven thirty.

I shot out of bed and ran down stairs, almost tripping over a box that was labeled kitchenware. I think I heard a few crashes within the box….

"Mackenzie, what was that?" I heard my mom's boyfriend yell.

"Uh… Nothing!" I said. I walked into the kitchen. It was completely bare except for a few boxes and two plates set out with dinner on them. I smiled. "Hey, Aaron," I said. "How was work?"

Aaron sighed. "It was long." He ran a hand through his graying hair.

"Oh yeah?"

"Mm. How was school?" he said. We both sat down at our places at the dinner table and grabbed our forks.

"It was okay. Nothing special happened." I said. In reality, I was hit on by a strange freshman, but it wasn't really something I was going to tell my mom's boyfriend. Besides, it didn't really affect me. I'd had guys ask me out before. Heck, Sam had asked me out before, and we went on a date without my mom even knowing it at all. Besides, Aaron wasn't the kind of guy who really cared about that type of thing.

"Oh? And how was Ms. Georgia today?" he said, smiling fondly. Aaron and Georgia's dad were college buddies, and that's the main reason I got the babysitting job. He recommended me to the Worthers.

"She was good. Hyper, but I calmed her down. I cleaned the house, did the laundry, gave her a healthy snack, did the dishes..." I thought for a moment. "Oh, and I helped her clean her room. Then Fang came over early and I left," I said.

"Good. I'm glad you can help out so much," he said. I nodded, and we both took a few more bites of turkey meatloaf. "Are you friends with that boy?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Not really. I don't know him that well," I said. "He seems okay, but I don't know if we're the same kind of people, y'know?" In reality, he was quite the pretty boy. If I thought he was actually interesting as a person, I'd be all over that boy like a chocolate chip cookie with extra gooey insides. Truth is, I thought he was kind of boring, and goodie-two-shoes-ey.

"Mm. You should try befriending him. You'll be going to his school next week," he said. My eyes widened.

"Next week?!" I said. "Mom said we weren't moving for another two weeks!"

"Yes," he stuttered, "but your mother and I have been talking."

Aaron swallowed.

"And you just decided we could uproot our lives a few weeks early? I haven't even said goodbye to my friends." I said.

"I'm sorry, Mackenzie-"

"It's Max," I said, glaring at him.

"Max, we feel like doing it sooner rather than later would be more helpful," he said.

"Well, do I get a say in this?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"We've already decided, Mackenzie, I'm-"

"It's _Max_, Aaron," I said, shoving my chair away from the table and stomping into the living room. My stomach gurgled, so I walked back, grabbed my plate, and then headed upstairs, blushing.

"You know, I think I should get a say, since your not the only ones living here!" I yelled at the top of the stairs. I could tell he was just done.

Well, good, because I was _so_ done. I don't get why parents don't realize that their kids have a lot in their lives, too. I hadn't even _told_ my friends that I was moving. I sat down hard on my bed with the meatloaf in my hands. I stuffed a large bite in my mouth and chewed. Stupid parents.

Within half an hour, my mom had gotten home, and it was quarter after eight. I assumed that Aaron had filled her in, and she came up the stairs to my room.

Anne Strider was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and everytime I saw her, I forgot that I was mad at her. She was strict sometimes, but she always had that soft side that I could always wiggle it's way into me and get what it wanted. The pros of being her daughter were big, but sparse. The cons were little, but came in bunches. She was a great mom, but sometimes I wished she would just see it from my point of view.

"Mac, we have decided it would be better to move sooner, and I'm sorry that you don't see it that way, but that's the end of it," she said. She crossed her arms in front of her, and I did the same thing.

"If that's the end of it, you could have been a little more considerate in giving me a chance to say goodbye to everyone." I said.

"You are completely right, and I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner," she said, dropping her arms and sitting down on the bed beside me. She pushed her blonde hair behind her ear and smiled with warm brown eyes. "I had asked Aaron to tell you sooner, and I assumed he had done it on Sunday, but, apparently, he 'forgot.'" she said. I smiled.

"You think he's scared of my wrath?" I said.

"We both know he's scared of women," she said. We laughed. "Come on, let's put on some good workout music, and power through the rooms we haven't packed yet. I think we still have to do the office," she said. I nodded.

"Okay."

I finished up my meatloaf and ran down to the kitchen to set the plate and fork in the sink. When I got back upstairs, we started packing.

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**Review please, and tell me what you think of my first chapter :) I like critiques on my plot line, or suggestions, even! Please answer the daily question, too :) It's a new thing I'm trying.**


	2. I Tell My Friends I'm Moving

**Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. So, apparently, like four or five days after I posted the first chapter, I got grounded. Two weeks later, here I am, hurrying to type out a 2513 word chapter, just to appease you. I hope you don't all hate me :) I'll try to be better with my "attitude" and my "disrespect" in the future. Haha.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm still trying to get into the swing of writing again, after it's been so long since I gave a crap about my writing. :D haha**

* * *

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. We'd packed up the entirety of the office last night, as well as finished what was left of the kitchen to pack. The myriad of boxes were stacked in a tower in our living room. I'd set the last box up and trudged up the stairs to my room.

The next morning, as I was walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I tripped over a stray box in the hall and hit my head on the wall.

"Frig," I whispered, getting up. I felt my head for any bumps, and continued into the bathroom. As I peered in the mirror, I noticed dark circles under my eyes and groaned.

"Ugghh," I said, pulling my skin down to look more deeply at the imperfections on my face. I had a zit on the corner of my forehead. Great. The last day at Turnippe Memorial High, and they'll remember me looking like absolute crap.

I gave up trying to figure out how to get rid of it and washed my face with cold water. I grabbed my tooth brush and brushed my teeth as I walked back into my room to find a suitable outfit. Maybe if I wore something cute enough it would distract them from looking at my face.

I grabbed a t-shirt out of a box and shrugged it on. Eh, clean enough. I took it off and grabbed my jeans and some clean under garments and headed back into the bathroom to shower.

* * *

I trudged down the stairs with my bag on my shoulder. Grabbing some bread, I shoved it in the toaster, then pulled up a chair and sat down to tie my converse. I wasn't exactly looking forward to school. I had no idea how my friends would react. I mean, it's not every day that someone drops a bomb like this on their friends.

I sighed and walked over to the toaster, waiting for it to pop. As soon as it did, I kicked the cupboard.

"Oh my frigging word, how can I turn away for three seconds and have this burn?"

It's happened enough times that I really shouldn't be surprised anymore, but_ come on_. I'd like to have something in my stomach for school. Seeing as peanut butter, jelly, bread, and a toaster was really all we had left in the kitchen, I realized that I'd be going to school hungry.

I threw the toast in the trash bag hanging on the doorknob of the closet and grabbed my bag, walking towards the door. I snatched my keys off the entryway table and left.

I drove into the Turnippe parking lot and parked my car. I jogged into the school with my bag slung over my shoulder, my stomach churning is suspense. Stopping inside the doorway, I looked around at the haphazard halls. My last day at Turnippe Memorial High.

I can't say honestly that I'll miss this place a lot. Most of the people here are stupid and don't do their work. I would miss the familiarity, and that's about it. The few friends that I have I'll miss a lot, and I'm not that good at making friends. Whatever, I can find new ones.

I took another glance around the halls and saw JJ and Sam over by their lockers and jogged over to them.

"Hey, guys," I said.

"Hey, Max," JJ said, and smiled. Sam nodded in greeting.

"So..." I said. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to tell them... How could I? _Hey guys, I know we're best friends an' all, but I'm moving this weekend, so bye, have fun without me._ They had no idea that I was moving. I mean, technically, _I_ hadn't even known until twelve hours ago. I _was_ under the impression that I had a few more weeks until we moved to Kokas.

JJ and Sam waited for me to speak.

"I have something to tell you guys," I said, pushing some blonde hair behind my ear. I swallowed thickly. The bell rang as I opened my mouth to speak again, providing a suitable reason for my "I love you guys and I'll miss you" speech to be said some other time. JJ rolled her eyes.

"Okay, tell me in French class!" she called over her shoulder. Sam followed behind her.

"I'll see you in English," he said. I nodded.

Walking to homeroom, I rolled my eyes. _Great, that "goodbye" moment was a bust._

As Mr. Jerms took attendance, I yawned. When the bell rang, I left, rubbing my eyes. I walked to my first block class, geometry with Mrs. Coories.

As she taught the lesson, I stared at my text book with a fervor that couldn't compare to anyone else's. I paid no attention to what she was saying. Coories droned on about Special Right Triangles and I rolled my eyes. This lesson won't matter anyways. They'll probably be teaching something completely different at Kokas High. Instead, my thoughts were consumed with the inevitable moment where I'd have to let go of my friends, and move to a new town, where the only friend I had was a four year old girl named Georgia.

How could I gently imply to my friends that I was going to be moving this weekend? _Surprise, I'll probably never see you again!_

It was kind of intimidating to think about, actually. It's not that I have loads of friends or anything, but I have a good set up here. The teachers know me, I know where all their buttons are, and I can press them easily. Everyone in school knows me. It's fun. I don't have to live up to any reputation except for being obnoxious. And hey, it's not like it doesn't come naturally.

I perused the clock above the door. It said 8:30. This is going to be a long day.

* * *

By the time French class rolled around I was seriously thinking about faking sick and going home early. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a weenie, and I'm definitely not a down-and-out kinda girl. I'm strong.

Now, obviously, I'm not going to actually fake sick. I wouldn't do that to my friends. They deserve to know I'm moving. Not that knowing this makes it easier to tell them.

Whatever, I'm over it. I can tell her, and we'll just move on. She may be my best girl friend, and that won't change just because I'll live an hour away from her, but we'll get over the unfamiliarity of not having each other around. She's got Sam, and I'll make some new friends.

A plethora of reassurances rang out through my mind, and as I sat down in my seat in front of Mr. Forbes desk I knew I'd be able to tell her. Even if I really wasn't good at making new friends.

A minute later, JJ walked into the room and sat down next to me. She threw her bag on the floor and her hands in the air.

"I haate global studies," she said. I smiled.

"Me too," I said, "I didn't think the history of the Middle East could be so disengaging, and I usually don't mind that class."

JJ and I laughed.

"Hey, you said that you had something to tell me?"

"Yeah, I do." I said, and I swallowed. "I'm moving."

"WHAT?!" JJ yelled. She stood up so fast that I had to blink to make sure I wasn't seeing things. "YOU ARE SO NOT SERIOUS!"

I know it really wasn't the time, but I started laughing so hard.

She sat down, and the teacher walked in, spouting nonsense about opening our books to a certain page. Mr. Forbes, or, Mr. Fancy Pants, as I call him, is probably the most OCD teacher in our school. His hair is always slicked back with a pound of gel, there's never a sign of gruff on his jaw, he rearranged his tie every three seconds, and his bottle of hand sanitizer was bigger than a gallon of milk.

Truth is, I'm gonna miss "getting sick" in this guys classroom.

"Mackenzie Ann Strider, I swear, if you're shitting me, I'm going to go find a gun and shoot your foot," she whispered, quite aggressively. I grimaced, and JJ's slightly relieved smile fell off her face after a few seconds. "Wait, so… you're really not kidding?" she said. I shook my head, and looked back down at my text book. I slipped my hair back into a pony tail, and concentrated on reading along with Mr. Fancy Pants. I tried to ignore the glare of betrayal I felt on my right ear. "Max…." she said.

I glanced at her and smiled.

"I'm moving to Kokras. Just found out myself," I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught JJ slump at her desk, her arms crossed over her chest. "Sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say. JJ and I had been best friends since the fifth grade. We became friends the moment we saw each other, and I haven't regretted it ever since. She's always been there for me when I really needed her, and I've been there for her, too. I was truly going to miss hanging out with her. "Hey, tell Sam for me, will ya? I'd rather have him be over the shock by the time English comes around."

JJ nodded and didn't say anything else. She frowned for the rest of class.

* * *

"So," Sam said, cornering me in Mr. Udette's classroom. We sat at our respective desks and I waited for him to continue. Sam had been JJ and I's friend since freshman year. He went to a different middle school before Turnippe. He was a good friend, but after he asked me out last year, it kinda got awkward with him. I went on one date, but I ended it after that. It was too weird to go out with him. Especially since I knew JJ had a little crush on him. I told her I was just doing it so I wouldn't hurt his feelings. 't course I'd still miss him, but it wouldn't be hard to lose him, either.

"I hear you're moving to Kokas," he said.

"Yep."

"Hm."

For a few minutes, we more or less paid attention to the lesson. I wiped my hands over my face and couldn't wait for school to be over.

"You want some help packing?" Sam asked. He looked at me with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "JJ and I already talked about it. Whenever you're moving, we'd be up for it."

"Oh, well," I said, pushing my refusal down my throat. "If you're free tonight…."

"You're moving that fast?" he said. I nodded. "Oh. Well, I'm free if you want some help."

"Cool. Thanks man, that's really cool of you guys," I said with genuine enthusiasm.

"No problem."

By the time school was over, and JJ and Sam got into the car with me, I was feeling like the worst part was over. Then I realized that we would still have to go through the whole ordeal of saying goodbye for the last time. And I had a feeling that some gross emotions would be making a guest appearance.

The drive home was silent for the most part, except for the drone of the radio. Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas was playing on 94.9 The Mix. As I pulled into the driveway, I saw Aaron and Mom loading the trucks with boxes and furniture. I saw that they'd at least lugged all the boxes outside. Easier for us.

"Hey, JJ, Sam. Come to help out?" my mom asked. She smiled at them and handed a box to Aaron. He loaded it in the truck as Sam nodded. There were stereos inside the house blasting AC/DC.

"Good to see you, Ms. Strider," Sam said, and JJ gave Mom one of her winning smiles.

"Hey, Anne."

Mom smiled back at her and opened her arms for a hug from them both.

"I'm gonna miss you guys coming around all the time," she said in true mom fashion. She let go of them and shook her head. "Well, you might as well be useful," she said, motioning to the pile of boxes and laughing. JJ and Sam both grabbed a box, and I followed.

We hummed along to AC/DC and formed an assembly line, making it go by much faster. Within almost two hours, we were all packed in the trucks. Mom and Aaron went inside to go through and do one last check to make sure we weren't leaving anything behind. I glanced at the FOR SALE sign on the front lawn and sighed.

"Hey, Max, I'm really gonna miss you," JJ said, tearing up. I turned toward her and made sure I didn't tear up myself. That's just not how I roll.

"I'm really gonna miss you, too, JJ," I said. I smiled wryly and gave her a hug.

"I'll come visit you when I'm free, and we'll talk on the phone, okay?" she said. I laughed.

"Of course we will. I'm not dying," I said, laughing. She punched my shoulder, and then threw her red hair into a low pony tail. Her freckles were magnified by her trail of tears. I looked at Sam, running a hand through his curly brown hair, his blue eyes hidden between angry slits. "I'll miss you too, Sammy boy." I said with a smile. He gave a small one in return, but I could tell he was more upset than me about us bifurcating.

Now, Bon Jovi, in the middle of You Give Love a Bad Name, ceased to sing from the stereo in our house. I noticed Mom and Aaron coming out of the house with black speakers and locking the door behind them. Aaron wrapped an arm around my mother and they walked toward us.

"Ready, Max?" Mom said. I nodded.

"Yeah."

"Alright, you take the car, and follow us. JJ? Sam? You two have rides?" Mom asked them.

JJ held up her phone. "Yeah, I asked my mom if she could pick us up. She'll drop Sam off at his house."

My mom nodded. Aaron hopped into a truck and started it up. Mom hugged my friends one last time, then she got in a truck too. I gave my friends another once over. JJ seemed to be trying to smile, and Sam didn't seem to be trying at all.

"It's kinda weird, I'm still in that initial phase of shock, y'know?" she said. I nodded.

"Yeah, me too," I whispered. Sam just grunted. "I guess I'll see you guys around?" I said. They nodded together, sharing a sad glance.

"Alrighty. I'm off."

I gave them each one last hug, then hopped in my car. I beeped to let Aaron know that he could take off. Aaron pulled out of the driveway, Mom did the same a few seconds later, and then it was my turn. I glanced in the rearview mirror to look at them. I waved, and then put the car in gear, wincing at their expressions. I looked down the road at the two white trucks leading me.

Off to Kokas.

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**Well, I hope you enjoyed chapter two. Tell me what ya think :)**

**A review would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!**


	3. I Make a New Friend

**New chapter! Again :) So, it's been three days and I still don't have a single review on the second chapter. Was it really that bad? :( Anyways, I hope you like this one better.**

* * *

The drive to Kokas was slow going. I listened the radio as I drove along the interstate, humming along awfully. If you haven't caught it yet, I'm extremely tone deaf. I can appreciate good music when I hear it, and denounce it when I hear a bad singer, so I know that I'm not matching pitch.

Okay, so Georgia told me I sounded bad.

But hey, who says you have to sing because you're good? I sing because it's fun.

About an hour into the lonely drive, the trucks ahead of me started to take an exit. I followed them and I was led into a cutesy town. The houses were all pastels and neutral colors, and every house had a garden out front. Of course, I'd been here many times before. The neighborhood was nice enough, but I only knew the family of the Worthers.

A few minutes passed and I saw the Worthers' house. I smiled, committing the location to memory. A minute later Aaron pulled into the driveway of a two story, light pastell-y green house, with a dead garden out front, and a green lawn with a FOR SALE sign sticking out of it. There was a picket fence out back, and behind that there was a section of woods. I parked the car and unbuckled my seat belt, peering around the rear view mirror to get a better view.

I got out and made sure my tail end wasn't in the road, then I trudged up to where my mother and her boyfriend were staring at the front of the house.

"What do you think, Max?" Mom asked. I shrugged.

"It's okay," I said. "Want me to take down that sign?" I motioned with my thumb toward the front of the yard. She nodded.

"Thanks," she said. I jogged over to the front yard and pulled it up out of the ground. I walked back to Mom and she took the sign from me. "Shall we go inside?"

Aaron and I nodded and shrugged, respectively.

"Max, would you like the honor of picking out your room first?" Mom asked. I grinned.

"Uh, duh."

I ran in as soon as the door was opened and I found the stairs. I walked up and stopped inside the doorway at the end of the hall. It was a linen cupboard. The next one was a medium sized room with a large bed frame and mattress in the middle. It had two big windows on the east wall, and the floor was a really nice cherry color. The walls were painted a light gray, and the trim was a darker gray. The room was gorgeous, and it even had a closet with a bathroom beside it. I knew I didn't have to look any further.

"I call this room!" I yelled loud enough for them to hear. Mom smiled and came up behind me with Aaron at her side. She nodded, the corners of her mouth pulled down to complete the look of approval she gave me.

"Yeah, very nice," Aaron said. I smiled.

"Let's go see our room, Honey," Mom said, backing out of the room, pulling Aaron with her.

We trudged down the hall to see the second bedroom. The walls were a light peachy color with white trim and one large window on the North wall. Two smaller windows on the west wall were placed just right to bring in a great sunset view. Good thing I liked the sunrise better.

There was a huge walk in closet to the left of the room, and I ambled over to open the doors. To the left and right there were rods with a few bent, wire hangers, and right in the middle, there was another door. I swung it open, and inside there was a master bathroom, with a huge tub, a large sink with a beautiful mirror, and more peachy tiles covering the ceiling, walls, and floors.

"Hey, your closet has some nice plumbing," I called over my shoulder.

"What?" Mom said. She ran toward where I was standing and gasped. "Ooh, Aaron, look at this bathroom!"

He strode over to us and peered over our shoulders. "Oh yeah, look at that," he said.

Suddenly, there was a ding-dong from downstairs.

"Wow, the neighbors must really want to meet us," I said. Mom and I laughed.

Aaron said, "I'll go grab that," and rushed down the stairs to answer the door. Mom and I followed slowly behind him.

At the door, two women were standing straight and smiling, with beach clothes and tan skin. I remembered that the beach a few miles away from Georgia's house, and now mine, I guess, was a popular place during the summer time. We had a few picnics with the Worthers last summer, and the beach was gorgeous.

"Hi," my mother said, sticking out a hand for them to shake, "I'm Anne Strider." Each woman took her hand with a smile.

"Max," I said, following my mother's lead.

"I'm Valencia Martinez, and this is my daughter, Ella," said the older lady. They both had straight black hair and finely tanned skin. "We live in this blue house right next to you," she said, pointing with her thumb. I looked through the kitchen windows to my left and saw it. Their gardens were beautiful.

"Well, it's good to meet someone already," my mom said with a laugh. "Come on in."

We led them into what I supposed was going to turn into the living room. The Walls were the same peachy tone as in my mother's room, and the trim was a dark gray, like in mine.

"I'd offer you a couch to sit on, but it's still in one of the trucks," Aaron said with a wry smile. Valencia laughed, and Ella smiled shyly. "Max, why don't you take Ella up to see your room?"

"We're not five, Aaron," I said to him. He frowned at me but I walked upstairs and motioned for Ella to follow me.

"So, what grade are you in?" Ella said.

"I'm a junior. You?"

"Same," she said with a smile. "So I guess we might have some classes together," she said.

"Yeah."

I turned the corner into my room and stood off to the side to let her in.

"Wow, nice choice. The colors are super cute," she said. "You know, I could help you decorate if you want! I want to be an interior designer when I get out of high school."

"Oh yeah? That's cool," I said with enthusiasm. "You can help me if you want, but you don't have to."

"No, that'd be super fun! I'd love to!" she said. I grinned. "Hey, do you need help bringing in your boxes?" she asked. I shook my head.

"No, no, that's okay," I said. Ella seemed pretty generous, and I respected that, but I didn't need to make her haul my things up for me.

"I insist," she said, walking out the door. "I think we're going to be great friends, and I know that you secretly want help with your boxes."

"Oh? And how do you know that?" I said, laughing.

"Uh, because no one wants to carry in boxes, much less _alone_," she said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, you got me," I said, following her down the stairs and out the front door. I walked over to the truck my mom had driven and opened up the back.

Ella hopped up before I could, and there was really only space for one person.

"Are these all your boxes?" she said, pointing to the fifteen or so boxes labeled "MAX'S - DON'T TOUCH."

"How can you tell?"

We both laughed and Ella leaned down to grab a box. She put it in my arms and I waited.

"Oh, I see how this is gonna be. You're one of those 'do it in the least number of trips possible' kinda girls," she said, her hands on her hips.

"Guilty," I said with chagrin.

She piled another box on top of the first and I made my way inside and up the steps. I set the boxes down carefully on my bed and turned to see Ella follow me in, two boxes in her arms.

"Yeah, I'm kinda one of those girls, too," she said. We laughed.

After five more trips from each of us, Ella and I sat down against the wall with heavy lungs.

"Wow, I'm so glad I didn't have to do that alone. Thanks man," I said, holding out my fist. It was something I'd done with JJ forever, and I was about to take it back, but, surprisingly, she fist bumped me.

"No problem, man," she said. "Hey," she pointed to the bed, "You wanna have a sleepover at my house?"

I paused.

"Wow, I haven't been here three hours and I already have a sleepover set up," I said, laughing. "And I thought I'd never make friends."

Ella laughed too, brushing her black bangs out of her face.

"Sure, if it's okay with our moms, I'd be okay with it," I said in response to her question. She grinned.

"Awesome! I haven't had a sleepover in for_ever,"_ she said.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Let's go ask your mom."

We both sauntered down the steps and into the living room area. "Maybe we can go shopping in the morning. Do you have decoration stuff for your room?" I shook my head. "Money?"

"Tons," I said. I've saved seven hundred dollars from babysitting. I've been babysitting Georgia since she was 3.

"Then we'll definitely have to go shopping. I'll show you all the best stores," she said with a smile. I inwardly groaned, just because of my experiences with JJ: that girl shopped for hours, and she had no money.

"Let's go ask your mom." We both sauntered down the steps and into the living room area. The adults were all standing around talking, Valencia spouting out different places around the town that were fun hangouts. She was talking about a laser tag joint on the other side of town, and I smiled.

JJ, Sam, and I had gone to this laser tag place called Laser Lasso. It was a stupid name, and it was really cheap looking, but at least once a month we'd go there and JJ and I would team up against Sam. He would "die" at least three times before he even shot one of us. It was hilarious. Looking back on it, I have no idea why Sam befriended us at all. He was funny sometimes, and sure he was cute, but there wasn't a whole lot to him. Maybe that's why he was friends with us, because we had more than enough personality to go around.

"I bring Ella and her friends there all the time," Mrs. Martinez said. There was a pause in the conversation as Aaron and Mom took it all in and nodded their heads, which Ella saw as a chance to bud in.

"Hey, Ms. Strider, can Max spend the night at our house?" Ella said, giving her a winning smile. My mom smiled with a shrug on her shoulders.

"If she wants to, of course," she said. She looked at me with the question on her face of 'if you really want to hang out with someone, I'm more than okay with it.'

I smiled. "Cool, thanks."

"Well, that was fast, Ella," Mrs. Martinez said. To my parents, she laughed. "Ella hasn't had a sleepover in _two whole days_, I'm sure she's so socially deprived," she said good heartedly. "Well, I guess we should get out of your hair."

Valencia and my mom shook hands again, and Mom said, "Thank you so much for coming over, it was great to meet you."

I ran upstairs to grab some clothes out of a random box, and then flew back down. Ella smiled in anticipation. "Ready?"

I nodded. "Yep," I said.

"Okay, well, let's go," Mrs. Martinez said. She ushered us out the door, and I could just tell by her every mannerism that she was a practiced mother. She must be in a line of work with children or something.

"I'll see you later, Honey," Mom said, kissing me on the forehead.

"Okay, bye," I waved as she shut the door behind me. I noticed the truck door was still open and shut it. I opened the door to the car and grabbed my wallet. I hurried to catch up the the Martinez's as they walked down the sidewalk to their house. Ella lulled a few steps to walk next to me.

"You want pizza?" she asked.

"Um, who doesn't want pizza at a sleepover?" I said. She shrugged.

"That's a legit point. You should be on the debate team," she suggested. I cringed.

"Ew, no, that'd be awful," I said. I grabbed my sides as if I was going to throw up. She laughed.

"I think so too," she said. We laughed like it was the funniest thing we'd ever heard.

I just knew that Ella and I were going to be great friends. Hey, I guess making friends in a new town won't be as hard as I thought.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! :) Review!**


	4. I Feel Like I Make Progress

**New chapter! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

I stepped inside the door of Ella's house. An overwhelming scent of chocolate chip cookies and pine filled my nostrils. It smelled homey. I looked around at the blue and white walls with sailing boats and starfish, the white cupboards, and dark furniture.

Ella kicked off her shoes in the entryway. Mrs. Martinez turn to me with wide arms. "Welcome to our home, Max!"

"Thanks," I said, placing my shoes beside Ella's. "Come with me," Ella said. "You can put your stuff in my room."

I followed her up the stairs and into her room. I was assaulted by the onslaught of green that appeared in her room. Her walls were bright green, there was a fuzzy rug on the floor that was green, her bedspread was mostly green. The trim in her room was a cream color, and she had a few posters on her walls of Green Day and the Kokas Green Theatre Team.

"Wow, you're really into green," I said.

"Yeah, it's kinda my favorite color."

"Shocking," I said. Ella laughed.

"You have the same type of humor as my friend Iggy," she said. I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow. "He's a junior, like us. You should meet him, he's super cool."

"I'd like to hear all about your friends. God knows I'm going to need someone to hang out with," I said. I was legitimately worried about me being in classes where I didn't know anyone. It was a scary thought. How am I supposed to gain a rep as the obnoxious teacher's pest if I don't have anyone to laugh with me?

"Sure! I'm sure they'd love to meet you," she said. "Nudge is my best friend," she started. "She's super cool and friendly. She lives a few houses away from Iggy, who you already know of. Gazzy and Iggy are best friends, and Gazzy's really sweet on Nudge but neither of them really know it yet, so it's kind of on the down low. Iggy and I are trying to get them together, but, you know how well _that_ turns out. And then, we're also friends with-"

"Ella, sweetie, how about you ask Max if she wants to watch a movie with us?" Mrs. Martinez popped her head in the doorway and pursed her lips in a question.

"Yeah, sure," Ella said, nodding at her mother. Mrs. Martinez left the doorway. "We were going to watch

a movie tonight, would you care to join us?"

"Of course," I said. "What are you watching?"

"I don't know, it's mom's turn to pick," she said.

Ella and I traipsed down the hall and down the stairs into her living room. I sat down on her couch beside her.

Mrs. Martinez walked in with a bowl of popcorn and the remote.

"So girls, you ready to watch Gattaca?" she said. I nodded. "Good, because I'm super excited," she said, waving her hands in the air and throwing popcorn halfway across the floor. "Oops."

Ella and I laughed. Her mom sat down with a whistle like she was calling for a dog, then a few smooching noises.

I heard the jingle of bells on a collar and then a small, black and white, old cocker spaniel walked in wagging her fluffy tail.

"Magnolia, Mags," Mrs. Martinez said, snapping at the fallen popcorn on the floor. Magnolia scooped it up with her tongue like no one's business.

"Aww," I cooed uncharacteristically. I made smooching noises to attract Magnolia over. She scurried over and hopped up on the couch. Ella and I ruffled Magnolia's fur.

"What a cutie," Ella said. I heard Magnolia whine and the movie start up.

While we watched the movie, Magnolia would lick my hand whenever I took a break from petting her, coaxing me into petter her again. She was such a cute little dog.

When Gattaca finished with a fiery end, Ella and I got up and stretched. I yawned at the same time as Magnolia and smiled.

"That was an okay movie," Ella said with a smidge of distaste. I shrugged.

"I thought it was pretty good," I said. "I think it's cool that he knew he wasn't genetically enhanced all along."

"Yeah, that was pretty cool," Mrs. Martinez said. "I'm glad we watched it."

"Mom's a vet, so she's into that kinda science-y stuff," Ella said.

"Ooh," I said. "Should I be calling you Dr. Martinez or Mrs. Martinez?"

"Well, I'm not married, so let's go with Dr." Dr. Martinez laughed. Now that I think about it, Dr. Martinez sounds much better than Mrs. Martinez.

"Why don't you girls head on up to bed, it's getting late," she said, pointedly glancing out the windows where the sky was darkening fast. I nodded and got up slowly so I didn't wake up Magnolia. She'd fallen asleep near the end of the movie. Ella and I jogged up the steps, yawning.

"Are you tired?" she asked.

"No," I said with another yawn. We both laughed and walked into her green room. "So, are you a… tree-hugger? For lack of a better term?" I said. She shrugged.

"I mean, kind of, but not really. I just really love the color, y'know? I guess I used to be into it, but I was younger then." Ella flopped down on the bed, her bone-straight black hair swooshing around her head.

"So, what's the school like? People and teachers, I mean."

"Eh," Ella said, though it was muffled from the comforter she'd started cocooning into. She picked up her head to speak. "It's okay. My group of friends is obviously awesome, but everyone else is just 'eh.' And the teachers aren't the worse in the world. It's semi-private, so we get some cool staff."

I groaned aloud.

"Dang, that means it'll be harder to push their buttons," I said.

"Oh?"

"It's kinda my thing," I said, sitting down in a green chair at her white desk. "I like pushing people's buttons, finding out what makes them tick."

Ella frowned in thought. I hoped that she wasn't a goody two-shoes in that moment. If she was, I figured she'd never have me over again.

"You and Iggy will be great friends," she said finally with a glance in my direction. I smiled on the outside and frowned on the inside.

"What, are you afraid I'll become too friendly with him?" I said, crossing my arms over my chest and smiling triumphantly as she sat up with an incredulous gasp.

"What, no, that's, that's ridiculous," Ella sputtered. I grinned with my eyes and she scowled at me. "You can't tell anybody," she said. "Only Nudge knows, and I seriously regret even that, because that girl gossips like it ain't Gossip Girl's business."

I laughed at that, and nodded. "Of course I won't tell anyone," I said. "I'm more likely to keep a promise to someone I don't know very well then to someone I'm best friends with," I said truthfully. I remembered when JJ said that she had a crush on Joshua Peters in seventh grade and I went and told him just so he would ask her out. They went out for two years because of me.

"Oh, um, good to know," she said, awkwardly pushing her black hair from her tan face. I coughed.

"That is, I mean, unless it's like, really serious. I don't actually tell secrets that are like, super dark or anything," I said, trying to reassure her. It didn't work very well, so I told her what I meant, and explained the story of JJ and Joshua Peters. "But don't worry," I said quickly after, "I won't even hint at him. I don't know him, anyways."

This seemed to loosen Ella's wariness and I sighed in relief.

"So, what about you?" she said. I raised my eyebrows, prompting further explanation. "Like, I don't know, did you get to visit the school before you moved? Most kids do."

I shook my head. "Nah, I found out I was moving two weeks early last night."

"Holy crap, last night?!" Ella said with utter disbelief. I nodded in contempt.

"That was my reaction," I said. "I mean, luckily we'd had all but one room packed, but still. I had to say goodbye to both of my best friends today, and they had no idea I was moving until this morning."

Ella's shoulders sagged in sympathy and I brushed it off.

"What were they like?" she said, smiling apologetically.

"JJ was awesome. I think she'd like you," I said. "Sam was okay, but he also didn't really fit in with us, y'know? He was kinda just there."

"One of those guys, huh?" Ella said. "Been there. Okay, like, not to be mean or anything, I mean, I really like him, he's cool and everything, but there's this guy that hangs out with us. I mean, he's Iggy's best friend, but he's also kind of a loner, right? And he's Nudge's cousin, so I can't really tell him to shoo, y'know? But he's just so weird. Not in like that bad smelly way that people are sometimes, he just… he's like that one puzzle piece that looks right with the other ones, but the piece is a little too different to fit. It's weird."

"Yes! That's just how Sam is." I said with enthusiasm. "Like, you still think he's okay, and you wouldn't be mean to him, but you still don't really understand why he's there. There's like a missing link. For that piece to fit, there has to be one in between them, and that piece is just missing with Sam."

"Yeah, Fang too," Ella said, shoving her hair back into a pony as the conversation got more heated.

"Wait, wait, Fang?" I asked in surprise. "Fang Worthers?"

Ella went bug-eyed. "How do you know Fang?" she said.

I shook my head. "I don't, I mean, not really. I babysit his younger sister, Georgia." I stood up from the chair and hopped on the end of her bed. She scooted up against the wall and sat forward, leaning on her knees with her elbows.

"Isn't she just the most adorable little girl you've ever seen?" Ella said, squealing with delight. "Ugh, she's prettier than I am and she's 4."

"I feel the same exact way," I said, making a believe-me face.

"Hey, can I braid your hair while we talk?" Ella said. "You have gorgeous hair." I blushed and spit out a go ahead. I turned around for her and she played with my hair.

We continued through the night talking about school and friends and the _actual_ cool places to hang out in the town, contrary to what her mother said. I took in every piece of information that I could. She listed off the spring activities.

It was early February in this Arizona town, freezing at night, hot in the daytime, and beautiful every minute. I had a new friend, we were bonding through hair and conversation, and I never thought that I'd see the day. I'm honestly surprised that in seven hours, I did so many new things. I've never even been in the same house as a dog before, if you can believe that.

"Hey, in the morning," Ella yawned as she looked down at me on the floor from her spot on the bed, "let's go shopping at Zesta's, they have the best home decorating stuff. Then I can help you decorate and style your room."

I smiled, catching Ella's yawn. I was nestled in a flurry of blankets on Ella's green rug, leaning on my hands. "Okay."

Ella switched off the lamp on the bedside table and we were both out like the lights.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! I know I said that Ella would introduce Max to someone new this chapter, but I haven't really had a lot of time to work on it. My brothers graduating from college in a few weekends, and we're trying to get all the invitations sent out and stuff. I'll post this, though. It's pretty close to 2500 words. Close enough anyways. I promise you'll meet Iggy next chapter! :) Review!**


	5. I Get a Room Makeover

**Chapter five :) Read on. By the way, I hate shopping just as much as Max would, so I'm probably going to skip through most of that part.**

* * *

I woke up to the loud snoring of someone above me. My eyes fluttered open and I peered around at the now-familiar green surroundings. Glancing up, I noticed Ella's mouth open wide. I wondered idly if she knew that she snored.

I stretched my arms high above my head and sat up in my blankets. With a yawn, I crawled out of the pile of green that I slept in and, as quietly as I could, opened the door and slipped out. I tiptoed down the hall and down the stairs, hoping to find Dr. Martinez awake somewhere down stairs.

Sure enough, Dr. Martinez was at the stove, flipping pancakes.

"Good morning," I said, sitting comfortably at the island. Dr. Martinez turned and smiled.

"Good morning, Max," she said. "Ready for some chocolate chip pancakes?"

"Uh, yeah," I said, sitting up straighter. In my family, the only person who could cook was Aaron. My mom and I were admittedly lethal in the kitchen. I've rarely eaten breakfast cooked by a woman. JJ's mom was pretty good at cooking, but, like I said, we hadn't hung out enough since sophomore year to be eating breakfast together at her house.

"Here you go," she said politely, handing me a glass plate with a stack of pancakes perched on top and a fork beside them. "There's syrup in the fridge and butter on the counter, help yourself."

I got up and opened the fridge, checking the door for syrup. I grabbed the Mrs. Butterworth's bottle of gooey, sticky goodness, and then snatched the butter dish off the counter. Sitting back down to my plate, I heard Ella shuffling down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Hey, Max," Ella said groggily. "Hey, Mumma."

"Hey, honey, ready for pancakes?"

Ella slumped over to her mother and wrapped her arms around her waist. Dr. Martinez hugged Ella to her side.

"Mmm, pancakes," Ella slurred.

"Not a morning person?" I bud in. She laughed.

"How can you tell?" she said with a yawn. I chuckled and shoved some pancake smothered with butter and syrup in my mouth. The pancakes were just…. I knew at that moment that I'd probably be going to the Martinez household every morning for breakfast. The warmth in my mouth tasted of pure bliss and speechlessness.

"Mmmm…."

"That's what everyone says," Ella said with a groggy laugh. "Everyone loves Mom's cooking," Ella bragged. Dr. Martinez audibly sighed.

"Quit bragging about me and eat your breakfast. I'll take you to Zesta's if you promise to clean the house when you get home today," she said. Smart move. Mom: 1. Ella: 0. That was definitely something my mom would pull. Ella groaned in protest.

"Fiine." she said.

"Good, now eat your breakfast and go get dressed," Dr. Martinez said.

* * *

Zesta's Department Store was a locally owned interior and exterior design warehouse. Apparently, Ella was a frequent customer, because she was greeted by an employee as soon as she stepped through the door.

We'd been shopping for at least an hour and a half, and Ella was constantly asking how much money I was willing to spend. I'd brought along one hundred dollars, and we were carefully buying things that would interest me and weren't too expensive. So far we had a couple of cool posters illustrating New York, a few bean bags in green (of course) black, and red. I told Ella that if we just got green and red it would look like I was a Christmas fanatic. She agreed.

Ella asked me what my favorite color is, and I answered red. So we picked up some cheap, eight dollar curtains and a red fuzzy rug, which she insisted upon. We had roughly sixty dollars left when she asked if I was interested in buying a bedding set. We looked at them, and found one within our budget, so I picked it up. It was a $49.99 red and black indian patterned comforter, sheets and pillow cases included.

I usually don't care much about what's in my room. The architecture of a room interests me, but the stuff in it is kind of unnecessary. But I was being offered a chance to put something cool in my room. What could it hurt? I spent most of my time in there, anyways. My desk, my music, my bed, my windows. Those are things that I use all the time. Might as well make it more interesting.

Besides, I was getting a cool friend out of it all. And, you know, I was also getting a lot of help lugging stuff up to my room.

So when we got up to the register to pay, I barely cringed giving the cashier $97.98.

"Okay, I'll call my mom to come pick us up," Ella announced and I nodded. We were standing on the sidewalk of the Halifax Mall. When Ella got off the phone with her mom, she led me down the sidewalk to a coffee shop.

"This is Jazz's Java," she said. Inside, I was assaulted with the pungent smell of coffee beans and baked goods. It wasn't so overpowering that I couldn't stand it, but it was definitely _there_. It was a good smell, it was warm.

"Ella!" a guy's voice called across the coffee shop. I looked up from the seat I was sliding into and saw a handsome boy grinning at Ella. He had light, reddish hair, and pale skin. His blue eyes were so obviously into Ella that I knew he liked her.

"Iggy, hi," she said. "Iggy, this is my friend Max." She pointed to me with her thumb and I waved.

"Oh, hi," he put in. "I'm Iggy." He stuck out his hand for me shake and I took it.

"Nice to meet you," I said. He nodded, then motioned to his table behind him.

"Uh, I guess you're busy, so, I'll see you on Monday. We can talk about Club," he said.

"Yeah, sure," Ella purred. "See ya."

Iggy went and sat back down with a really pretty girl who had dark brown hair. She was pretty big, but that didn't stop her from being noticeable. She was sitting next to a guy with blonde hair and freckles. He was wiry but had broad shoulders. When Iggy sat down, I could just tell they were all drama kids. Big smiles, talking animatedly with their hands, nodding vigorously. I laughed.

"Are you a drama kid too?" I asked Ella, implying that I knew they were drama kids.

"How could you tell?" she said slowly, looking over her shoulder at the group.

"I'm good at reading people. Especially when they interact with other people like them," I said. "Besides, I saw that poster in your room."

"Oh, the Kokas Green Theatre Team?" she said.

"That's the one," I said. She smiled.

"Yeah, that was like, sixth grade, but high school drama is so much better. Ever been in a play?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I was in Peter Rabbit in third grade. I was a carrot."

"Hm."

"Yep."

I was suddenly struck with an odd thought. It was weird to be sitting at a coffee shop with someone I just became friends with, who I would already consider close to me, when not 24 hours ago I was saying goodbye to my best friends. My friends would be thinking of old memories and wondering how school would be like now, and I was out shopping with my new friend. It kind of made me feel guilty, but I didn't really have another option.

The door to the coffee shop opened and Mrs. Martinez appeared beside me.

"You ready to go, girls?" Dr. Martinez broke in.

"Yeah," Ella said. We grabbed the bags of decor and awkwardly waved a good bye to Iggy, who smiled and waved back.

Free from the small, bustling cafe, I let loose a sigh and took in a breath of fresh air.

"Max, are we dropping you and Ella off at your house, or do you wanna come to mine?" Dr. Martinez asked.

"I guess either one works-"

"Max's house," Ella interjected. I shrugged.

"I guess my house."

It took a few minutes to get home. Once Ella's mom pulled into the driveway I opened the door and shoved out with all my bags. Ella did the same.

Dr. Martinez drove to her house next door and parked. I saw her walk into her house out of the corner of my eye. My mom opened the door for us when we were close and she grinned at us, her eyebrows pinned up in surprise.

"What's all this?" she asked.

"Room decor," Ella said, politely moving past my mom and up the stairs.

"Well," my mom said. "Max, you've made a very good friend in record time." I rolled my eyes at my mother's comment.

"Ha ha."

Mom chuckled and closed the door behind me. I followed Ella up the stairs and down the hall into my room. After I set down my bags, I noticed that quite a bit more furniture was in my room. My desk was poised in the corner of the wall next to my closet, and my bedside table was situated on the left side of the bed, farthest away from the windows.

"Alright," Ella said with her hands on her hips. "Let's make this room uber cool."

* * *

I was laying on my completely clean, cleared off bed, staring at the "uber coolness" that was my room. My floor to ceiling windows were bordered in red translucent fabric. My bed was covered with the indian patterned comforter and sheets and pillows, and my floor was layered with the fuzzy red rug I'd bought. In the corner between my bed and big windows were my bean bags, stacked on top of each other. The walls were covered with cool New York scenes, like Central Park and Times Square.

Ella had left about an hour ago. We'd blasted music from my iPod dock on my bedside table while we worked, much to the annoyance of my mother. We collaborated on where everything was going to go, and the finished product looked really cool.

I checked the time. According to my iPod, it was 1:30.

Enjoying the paradise that was my room was fun and all, but I needed to get up and move around. Before I even thought about unpacking all of my boxes that were currently stacked in the hall, I thought about Georgia. I'd taken off work yesterday to move, and I never see her on the weekends, unless Aaron and Raymond, Georgia's dad, decided to plan a family get together, which really only happened in the summer.

"Mom!" I yelled. "I'm going to go see Georgia!"

"Okay!" Mom yelled back. I grabbed my iPod from its dock and grabbed a jean jacket from from my half packed closet. I jogged down the stairs and on my way out the door my mom stopped me in my tracks. "Hey, if they offer you to stay for dinner, I want you to say no. We have a lot of work to do here, and you're expected to help."

My mom looked me in the eyes and I groaned.

"Fiine."

Mom pushed her hair back into a headband and fixed her mom jeans back onto her hips. Her gray shirt had sweat stains and I snickered.

"What?" she said, checking herself over. "What?"

I left the house with a laugh, gleefully getting the last word.

I remembered where I saw the Worthers' house and tried to follow my brain's instincts as best I could. In ten minutes, I was walking up the driveway to the Worthers' front steps. Knocking on the door, I waited to see who would be home.

Mrs. Worthers opened the door.

"Mackenzie! How nice to see you," she said, stepping aside to let me in. I smiled and stepped inside the familiar house. I could tell there was a barbecue cooking out back, and I almost invited myself to stay and eat with them. Then I remembered what my mother said. Dang it.

"Good to see you too," I said.

"Georgia is outside with Ray and Nick," she said, sounding busy. I nodded my thanks and she went back into the kitchen to finish something as I moved towards the back door. I heard a scream from Georgia like she was being tickled to death and grinned. Pushing open the back door I saw Fang and Georgia laughing and screaming, respectively, and Raymond stood at a grill cooking up something that smelled delicious.

"Max!" Georgia shrieked, running at me like a freight train. She barreled into me and I toppled onto my butt with an 'oof!'"Max, you're here! I missed you yesterday! Fang had to babysit me and all he did was give me crayons and paper. He drawed with me and he was so bad at it. Are you ever going to babysit me again?" Georgia wondered hopefully. I laughed for a few seconds, then answered her.

"Of course I am, sweetie, I just had to move in next door," I said, poking her nose. She gasped and turned her head ninety degrees to her left. "Well, not exactly next door."

"Oh."

"Fang, come help me with the barbecue," Raymond said. Fang got up from the grass and helped his dad out with cooking the meats. Raymond walked over to us and swung Georgia up in his arms. "Hey there, Mackenzie," he said. Raymond was a tall, balding man with a bit of scruff on his chin. He always had a bright smile and crows' feet at the corners of his eyes.

"Hey, Ray," I said back. "How's life treating ya?"

"Oh, the office is as slow as ever," he said. "You know how it goes. I just wanna remind you that my hours are going to be changing again, for the spring. I'll be going to work later than usual."

"Yeah, of course," I said. In the spring, Ray's Skiing business get's less and less visitors, so he doesn't have to go in for as long to do paperwork. He was the manager of the Kokas Ski resort. In the summer, he didn't work at all, so I got summers off as well. "5:30 to 8:30, right?"

"You got it," Ray said with a laugh. Georgia was looking over her father's shoulder with a finger in her mouth, staring at the neighbors tree. A few birds were singing together over a birds nest and she was transfixed. "You wanna stay for dinner? We got ribs. Won't be done for a while, but you can stay as long as you like."

My stomach growled in response, and I so wanted to say yes. I shook my head.

"Nah, Mom and Aaron want help unpacking all the boxes. But thank you," I said, painfully declining their tempting offer.

"Oh yeah, how's the moving going?" Ray said, setting Georgia down. Her pigtails bounced up and down as she ran to Fang in her little pink dress.

"Uh, I'm not really sure to be honest, I spent the night at someone's house last night."

"Oh really? You made a friend so fast?" Ray teased me. Geez, I don't know what's with everyone thinking that I'm so unlikable.

"Yeah, I guess. Do you know Ella Martinez?" I said. I knew that Fang did, but I wasn't sure about his family.

"Oh sure, the vet's little girl. Sweet girl. She and Fang are friends, they've hung out a few times over the years."

"Oh, cool."

I felt a buzz in my pocket and checked my texts. Mom wanted me home.

"Hey, listen, it was good to see ya, Ray."

"You leaving?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, I gotta go, my mom wants me to help her unload the dishes," I said, sticking my tongue out in disgust. He laughed and ruffled my hair on top of my head.

"Okay, I'll see ya round, kiddo."

"Bye. Bye Fang, bye Georgia," I called over to them. Fang waved offhandedly and Georgia ran over to hug me.

"Are you leaving?" she said.

"Yeah, honey, I gotta go," I said, hugging her to my side.

"I'll see you in two days?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll see you in two days."

"Okay."

I turned and walked back in through the back door. I waved goodbye to Mrs. Worthers as she mixed up a red drink.

"Bye, honey," she said. "Look both ways before you cross the street," she reminded me helpfully. I rolled my eyes with a smile.

"Always."

I stepped out of the house and headed home.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! I'm writing this so I don't have to do it later when I have to be working for my brother's party. :) Review! **

**What did you think of Iggy and his friends? :) Review who you think Max should have her classes with!**


	6. I Start A New High School

**Chapter six :) Read on.**

* * *

Monday morning. The day I start at Kokas High.

I was staring in the bathroom mirror, deciding whether I should try to make myself look presentable or dress comfortably to get myself through the day. I splashed my face with cold water and looked back up.

Might as well dress in between. Which is usually what I wear anyways. I threw on a pair of faded skinny jeans and a red cut off tee. I made sure my hair was relatively tangle-free and then grabbed my bag.

Jogging downstairs I smelled something delicious cooking. I knew Aaron must have gotten back. He usually spent the night at our house, but yesterday he had to leave for some work related emergency.

"Hey, Aaron," I yawned, watching the back of his head as he lifted an arm with a wave. "What's cooking?"

"Bacon and omelettes," he said. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

I sat down at the island in front of the stove and waited patiently, mentally checking off everything I needed to have for school.

"You ready for your first day?" Aaron asked, setting a plate down in front of me with a loaded omelette and some bacon. He opened the fridge and took out some hot sauce and I smiled.

"Eh, I guess," I said, mouth full. "You seem happy."

"Sure I am," he boasted. "I'm dating your mother."

"Okay, ew, ew, don't even start! I'm leaving," I said, cringing. I shoved the remaining contents of the plate into my mouth and grabbed my bag, throwing it over my shoulder and leaving the kitchen.

"What? I didn't even say anything!"

"Nope! Nope." I said and left, shaking my head with disgust.

"Have fun at school!" he called over his shoulder. I slammed the front door in response.

Checking my ipod I noticed it was only 7:00. Ella said the bus wouldn't be here until 7:20. I looked around and the green lawns and budding trees in the gray morning. There was a bit of a mist, but the birds were singing and the gardens were colorful. I shrugged and walked over the lawn to Ella's house, getting my converse wet from the dew. I knocked on the door of the Martinez's house, and Ella answered.

"Oh, hey Max! Come in," she said brightly. I stepped inside and brushed my feet off on the mat. "Ready for school?"

"Yeah," I said. "I just hope I'm not completely alone. I know like... three people."

"Three?"

"You, Fang, Iggy."

"Oh, right," she said. "I forgot that you knew Fang. Well, Iggy will be nice to you if you're in a class with him. Like I said before, you have similar tastes in what's funny."

"Yeah, I remember that," I said.

Ella threw on a jean jacket over her green tank top.

"Alrighty, let's walk down to the corner to wait for the bus," she said. We headed out the door and down the driveway. "I hope you get to meet Nudge today! We'll probably come find you at break. She's really cool."

I trudged along the sidewalk next to Ella. "Yeah, she sounds it," I said.

We got to the bus stop just in time to see the bus pulling up to the sidewalk. Hopping on, I saw Fang sitting in one of the first few seats of the bus. He waved at us and a gave him a wry smile. We sat in the seat across from him, but none of us talked the whole bus ride. We kinda had that Monday feel going on. It was kind of awful. All I wanted to do was stare out the window at the passing trees and yawn.

By the time we pulled up to the school, I knew that it was going to be a confusing day. Kokas High was _huge_. A massive brick building with white peaks and shutters. The front steps were made of polished granite. It was beautiful, but really big.

"Do you know what home room you're in?" Ella asked as we came down from the steps of the bus. We made our way towards the front of the school with Fang on the other side of Ella. He really didn't say much.

"Yeah, I have Mrs. Masters."

"Oh, me too," Fang said. I nodded and glanced at him to see his reaction. His face didn't portray any emotion. "I'll walk you there."

"Thanks," I said. Ella pulled open the front double doors and Fang allowed me in before him. I'd never really held a conversation with Fang, let alone been in the same room with him for more than five minutes. It was interesting to see how he interacted at school. For the most part, he was still pretty boring, but sometimes he'd nod at someone in greeting, and others he would just walk by. We stopped at his locker for a few quick seconds right after Ella had split down another hallway. I waited patiently for him to grab his books and then we were crossing the hall into a door way.

I found myself in a large room, with relatively bare walls. At the front of the room was a large desk cluttered with papers and office materials, and behind that, on the wall, was a white board/cork board hybrid. On the whiteboard was a slew math problems, and on the cork board was a collage of fliers for school events, community events, you name it, she probably had an ad for it.

I followed Fang over to his seat and sat one to his left.

I pulled my schedule from a folder in my bag and glanced at it. This was the first time I really took the few seconds it'd take to read it over, and I frowned.

**White Day:**

**Block A-Cooking...Mrs. Fairlan**

**Block B-Honors World Literature...Mr. Amard**

**Block C-Algebra 2...Mrs. Shrute**

**Block D-Honors Biology...Ms. Everette**

**Green Day:**

**Block E-Honors Global...Mrs. Jaxx**

**Block F-Study Hall...Mr. Amard**

**Block G-French...Mrs. Pots**

**Block H-Health 2...Mr. Rivers**

Okay, whoever devised my schedule must seriously want to kill me. Or, I should say, everyone else. Cooking? Really? I'm going to burn the house down.

I suddenly remembered one time when JJ and I were hanging out, and she was on the computer, I was trying to take a pizza out of the oven, and I asked for her help, but she told me to wait. I got impatient, so I took it out myself, which was admittedly the worst idea I could've carrie out. I ended up burning myself and flipping the pizza face down onto the floor.

Cooking class is not something _anyone_ wanted me doing. Trust me.

"What is it?" Fang asked. A few students in green and white uniforms in the corner got rowdy and loud all of the sudden, and I ignored them.

"They put me in cooking class," I said. Fang had known me long enough to know that when I cooked for Georgia, it always turned out disastrous. They had to start buying meals for us to put in the microwave. So when his face betrayed him for a second with inherent concern for humanity, I laughed a little bit.

"Well, that's not exactly the smartest thing they could have done," he said. "Do they not do detailed background checks anymore?"

"I thought that was only for criminals," I said, drawing my eyebrows to the middle of my forehead.

"Oh, I just assumed," Fang trailed off. I punched him in the arm and we both laughed. So, Fang wasn't always boring. That's promising.

The guy from that coffee shop suddenly appeared next to me. Iggy, I think it was.

"Hey, Max, right?" Iggy said. "You in our homeroom?" I nodded an affirmation. "Awesome."

"Yeah," I said. He sat in the seat in front of me and stared at us after waving at some friends sitting in the seats next to us.

"Has Fang made a friend?" Iggy said condescendingly. Fang rolled his eyes. "Aw, he's made an effort to meet someone new!"

"We already know each other," Fang said. I tried to hide my smile at Iggy's teasing behind my hand. I think Ella was right, saying that Iggy and I would get along because of our similar humor. "She babysits my little sister."

"Ooh," Iggy said, nodding in understanding. A heavy set teach walked in and slammed the door. Her graying hair had tints of red in it, and she was donning a little too much lipstick if you ask me. I could see the bright red of makeup on her teeth.

"I'm taking role," she said with disdain, looking around the class from the tip of her nose. I smirked as Iggy straightened himself and sat down.

"You scared?" I whispered in back of him.

"Please," he said, brushing me off. "She's an old lady."

"Okay," I sighed, sitting back in my seat. I didn't let it show, but I actually had butterflies in my stomach. I've never been to a new school before. It's odd to be looking at a foreign home room, with people I don't have any idea of their names, staring at me.

"We just got a new student in our home room, so lets have everyone spout their names out of their nasty, teenager mouths, and get on with our lives." Mrs. Masters got progressively louder and more violent by the end of her command, slamming her fist down on the desk. I would've been surprised had I not known many teachers like this before.

"Hi, I'm Dana," said a girl that looked familiar. Oh, right. She was sitting with Iggy at the coffee shop.

"Caleb," said a guy sitting next to her. I nodded at them both in greeting. The list went on and on, and I recognized no one else. When I realized everyone had finished and was staring at me, I took it as my cue to introduce myself.

"Hey, I'm Mackenzie. Call me Max," I said. I gave a small wave and a smile, then Mrs. Masters spoke up.

"Okay, attention whore, lets all be quiet and listen to announcements," she said. My eyes widened in surprise. I looked around at everyone, and Fang was the only person who looked at me.

"Can she say that?" I mouthed to him. Of course, he just shrugged in response.

When the bell rang to go to class, I asked Iggy if he knew where Mrs. Fairlan's room was.

"Yeah, dude, I have cooking with her right now," he said. "You too?"

"Yeah. I really shouldn't though-"

"Come on!"

I'm going to skip all the gory details of cooking class. Needless to say, I burned everything I touched, hit some poor girl with a frying pan, and spilled oil all over the floor. Mrs. Fairlan didn't even say anything to me. She simply pointed out the door with a red face and pursed lips.

By the time English rolled around, I was feeling like the butterflies were about to tear my stomach open. When I went through the class, I realized Mr. Amard was a pretty cool guy. Definitely a teacher that could take some teasing, and being made fun of. Fang was in my English class, and then he was in my math class, which, honestly, wasn't so bad. The class was well organized. But I knew that my teacher, Ms. Shrute, did not tolerate any form of sarcasm at all, and by the looks of _Fang_ when I opened my mouth to say something snarky, I really should be opening my mouth in that class at all. If Fang was using a facial expression, it must be serious. My last class, Bio with Ms. Everette, was great. Ella and Dana sat on either side of me, trying to get to know me a little better.

Dana, the heavy set girl I'd see talking with Iggy, was really cool. She was a drama kid, so she was completely carefree and open with me. We talked in between Ms. Everette's note presentation about the school.

When the bell rang to go home, I can honestly say that I was relieved. Not that I had a bad day, but it was a lot to take in, and I had a pile of homework on my arm. I had to babysit Georgia tonight, which was exciting. Fang told me that she'd lost a tooth last night, so I'd have to give her something under her pillow when I put her to bed. Fang told me he'd be home around 7:30.

At the Worthers' house, I cleaned up from the weekend while Georgia had a nap in her pink princess dress, slipped a five dollar bill under her pillow, and then I started in on some homework. By the time Fang showed up and silently dismissed me, less coldly then he had before, I was out the door and on my way home. I got inside the house and had dinner with my mother and Aaron, and then I watched my favorite show, Supernatural.

It was around 9:30 by the time that I trudged up to my super cool room and fell onto the bed. I laid awake for a few minutes, trying to get my hair off of my neck in the heat of my bedroom, letting the events of the day sink into my brain. Then I fell asleep.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**I just want everyone to be aware that I have a blog up for fan art. I like to draw when I have writer's block, it helps me get out of the funk. So, I'm putting up some pictures :) I have a few sneak peak pictures too, and one of them is a need-to-see. Feel free to visit bbxtras dot blogspot dot com.**

**If you could review, that'd be really great!**


	7. Do Not Read This Chapter!

**Just click the next chapter button! :)**


	8. I Hate Myself

**NEVER MIND! Just continue on to the next chapter! :)**


	9. I Continue Writing This Story Apparently

**This is a replacement for the last chapter that I wrote.**

* * *

"Well, my schedule says that I have Honors Global first, then study hall with the English teacher, French, then Health. What do you have?" I said to Ella, sitting beside me on the bus. It's Tuesday morning, and Ella and I were trying to figure out who could bring me to my classes.

"I know that Nudge has Honors Global first block, so that won't be a problem. But I don't know anyone who takes French, and everyone we know has already taken Health," Ella said, motioning to herself and Fang.

"I have a class right beside Mr. Rivers' room, so I can show you to Health," Fang said. I nodded in thanks. "I think we have study hall together, too, so I'll just bring you to Mrs. Pots' room."

"Oh, okay, thanks," I said with a smile. Fang nodded.

By the time we got into homeroom, pretty much all the seats were filled. I sat in the same one as yesterday, tapping Iggy on the shoulder.

"Hi," I said. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," he shrugged. I nodded and Fang walked in behind me. When Fang got close enough to Iggy, Iggy started scowling. I cocked my head to the side and leaned forward over my desk casually, trying to listen to the hushed conversation I was witnessing. Iggy looked pissed and Fang's phlegmatic face never wavered. Iggy punched Fang's shoulder, and not in the playful way I had done the way before. Fang's guise broke for a second and he pushed Iggy back.

When it looked like Iggy was about to come to blows, I stood up and pushed Iggy back toward his desk, yelling, "Hey!"

I could feel Iggy's glare on the back of my head, but I just looked at Fang with a disapproving stare. The question of what this was about was traveling through my mouth at the same time the bell rang. Iggy wrenched his torso away from my staying hand and sat down, visibly irritated. Fang avoided my eyes as he sat down hard in his own seat. I was left standing with a bewildered expression in the midst of my sedentary peers. Mrs. Masters walked in and noticed that I was standing alone in the center of the room at the same exact time as I did. She scoffed and muttered what sounded like, "Egocentric slut." I sat down real hard at that.

* * *

Later that day, after I went through a boring (and slightly tense) global studies class with Iggy and Fang, a satisfying study hall with Nudge, who talked loads and left barely any time to breathe, French 3, which was not the worst class ever, and Health 2, I stopped by the Worthers' house at 2:15, just in time to catch Georgia off the bus. I smiled at her toothy grin, and we went inside and watch Pocahontas again. After doing a ten second tidy of the house, Fang came home and bid me farewell with a cold shoulder like before. He acted very confident as he waved me away and walked upstairs to his room. I made a face at his back and hugged Georgia goodbye at the dinner table after putting the microwavable meal plates in the trash. On my way out the door, Mrs. Worthers was walking up to the house, keys jingling in her hand. She smiled a bright smile at me and pushed her black, curly hair out of her face.

"Mackenzie! How are you?" she asked earnestly.

"I'm great, Mrs. Worthers, how are you?" I said, holding back a yawn in an attempt to be polite, even though I was tired as hell.

"I'm fine," she said with a genuinely pleased twinkle of her teeth. I wondered for a moment why she was so happy, but my mind quickly switched gears with what she asked me next. "Listen, what are you doing this weekend?"

I shrugged half-heartedly, hoping she wasn't going to ask me to babysit. Not that I don't love spending time with the little munchkin, but I had hoped on having some down time to relax this weekend. I answered honestly, anyways.

"Nothing, really."

"Great! We're all going to the beach this Saturday, and Fang is bringing along a friend or two," she said. She looked around me, checking for listening ears, then continued, quietly. "Fang doesn't have many friends, he's kind of quiet," she confided. I wanted to smirk and make a snide comment about his attitude tonight, but I refrained. "I was just wondering, since you're going to the same school now, would you want to tag along, say it was for Georgia's sake?"

"

On my way home, and for the rest of the night, I was left wondering what Iggy and Fang were fighting about that morning. That night I called JJ up. I talked to her about what was happening and we chatted for an hour or too. At the end of our conversation, we got talking about the upcoming weekends.

"We should totally get together this weekend!" JJ said. I frowned.

"I have plans this weekend," I said. "Mrs. Worthers' invited me to go to the beach with the whole family," I said.

"Oh, bummer," JJ said. "How about next weekend? Spend the night on Saturday, we'll have a party!"

I reluctantly agreed, even though I hated parties. Too many people in the same vicinity, acting stupid and dancing even worse. We got off the phone a few minutes after setting up a plan, then I climbed into bed and fell asleep.

On Wednesday, Iggy showed up to homeroom with an apprehensive facial expression but talking about the sign-up sheet for auditions for the school one act competition play. He also said that he had no idea what the play was, but that he was hoping it was Disney related.

I mentioned that if it had anything to do with Pocahontas I would never step foot in the drama room. Fang gave me a knowing look. The front office had changed my schedule so now I had art class during my first block, and I was no better at art than I was at cooking, but I was slightly and admittedly less lethal.

After school, I babysat the cutie pie, and crashed at my house after doing as much homework as possible.

Nothing of interest happened on Thursday until I got to Georgia's house. Fang's practice was canceled, but Georgia wanted me to stay so I just hung out with Fang and Georgia. We finally switched it up and watched Peter Pan, a favorite of mine, and it felt like I was falling back in time, watching Peter Pan with J.J. when we were eleven. Fang sat across the room folding his own laundry for once, and I tidied up from time to time. When Fang put Georgia down for a nap, we sat at the table in the kitchen together doing homework. He wasn't exactly chatty, but there wasn't a whole lot to talk about while we did our Algebra 2 homework.

Well, there _was_ the burning question I'd wanted to ask for a few days, but he seemed to have lost all traces of anger related to the problem, and I thought maybe it was best not to bring it up for a while. I noticed he was running to the tissues a lot for his runny nose, and I tried making conversation, asking if he was sick. He looked up at me for a split second, then looked back down at his homework and nodded. I didn't try to socialize again until Georgia walked sleepily down the stairs at 6:30. When I left, I tried saying goodbye to Fang but he ignored me. I scoffed as I squeezed Georgia and told her to go tickle her grumpy older brother. She giggled and ran off as I closed the front door behind me.

On Friday, there was an assembly in the afternoon for no good reason (something about a winter carnival, whatever that was), and everyone left with a few minutes to spare until the buses left. Ella offered to give me a lift instead of taking the bus, and I accepted. Nudge was there as well, and instead of going home, Ella drove us to the coffee shop, and we all grabbed a coffee and sat down.

"Ugh, I hate school," Nudge groaned.

"You're telling me," I said. Nudge gave me a sympathetic nod and sipped her coffee. Ella yawned beside me.

"I don't mind it, not really," Ella said. "I hate the homework sometimes, but the actual experience of school isn't so bad."

Nudge and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

"I would much rather be doing something else with my time. Like, I don't know, dancing, even though I'm no good, or singing in the shower, or, like, learning how to draw or something fun like that. I don't know, there's so much pointless stuff you learn in school. Like, history class, come on," Nudge rambled.

"'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,'" Ella said sagely.

"I can see that. Why don't we just have a trimester course, or half year course, though?" I said.

"Yeah," Nudge agreed. "We could learn the basics and bad stuff, and no one will repeat anything bad that happened in the past." I nodded at Nudge.

"It's really just a waste of time, sometimes. And math? The only jobs that really need math are like, math teachers, and accountants."

Ella looked disapprovingly at Nudge and I as the conversation droned on, reluctantly laughing with us as Nudge made jokes about the teachers. I noticed throughout the conversation how easy it was to talk to them, and hang out with them. They asked me how my first week at school was, and I didn't hesitate to be truthful.

"You know, it wasn't bad or anything, but it's a _lot_ to catch up on, y'know?"

Nudge and Ella both nodded, but Nudge continued with a question.

"Yeah, but, like, how are the people?" Nudge and Ella both leaned towards each other with big smiled and looked at me with wide eyes. I laughed.

"Eh, I guess I can deal with 'em." I said. I thought for a moment. "But, what's the deal with Iggy and Fang? I thought you said they were best friends," I looked to Ella.

"No, yeah, they are," Ella assured me.

"Well, I saw them kind of, get into a fight in homeroom a few days ago," I said.

"Oh, yeah," Ella said, about to continue before Nudge cut in.

"But, you know, guys will be guys," Nudge said oddly, avoiding answering the question. Ella elbowed her and they shared a silent conversation. I awkwardly fell back against my seat and looked around at the coffee shop. There were couples sharing scones and drinking coffee, and an elderly man sitting alone with coffee and a newspaper. In the back corner of the cafe there was a young mother with two toddlers sitting across from her, girl and boy. Everyone looked happy.

Ella cleared her throat. "Okay, Max, through the week, I think we've become good friends. Wouldn't you say?"

I looked at her and nodded slowly, pondering the odd turn in conversation and the weird shift in mood.

"Good, 'cause we think so, too," Nudge said. "Well, as my cousin, I know Fang okay, and as one of Iggy's best friends, I know him okay, and Max, I don't know you really well or anything, I mean, we have one class together and it's really fun, but I want you to know that I think you're super cool. I just, I know something's going down between the two of them. They're best friends, so they fight about it, but they're still friends, you know? It's a little confusing for onlookers, but Iggy won't even tell anyone what's going on. I hate it! But, you know, we only told you because we trust you won't tell anyone or spread it around that... I don't even know what you would say, really, but, you know maybe you would say something along the lines of, 'He's so-"

Ella nudged Nudge hard in the side, a clear sign for her to stop talking. "We just think you seem genuine."

"Yeah," Nudge pouted, rubbing her side. "Seriously, though, it's kind of freaky. I mean, Fang is my cousin, like I said, but he's really an outsider. You've known him a while, right?"

I shrugged. "A few years, but I've really only known _of_ him. Until this week, I'd never actually held a conversation with him."

Nudge didn't look surprised. "He's not exactly garrulous, is he?"

Ella laughed, then, "No, I think that went to your side of the family."

The rest of the night went like that. We never mentioned the mysterious conundrum of Fang and Iggy's falling out again. I asked if either of them were going to the beach tomorrow with Fang and his family, Ella said no but Nudge nodded, and confessed that her whole family was going, and so was Iggy. At that, Ella looked a little put out. I tried to make her feel better about the situation by telling her that Fang's mother invited me because she thought that Fang was lonely. We all kind of laughed at that.

By the time I got home and got to bed, it was 9:30 and I felt content with my day. I danced in my room for a few minutes to the radio, and then jumped onto my bed and grabbed my phone to call JJ. We shared each other's odd experiences in school; she commented on the unusualness of being at school with me, and I told her what the school was like and how the classes were. We got done talking around ten, and then I crashed, ready for a relaxing day at the beach tomorrow.

* * *

**Um, I don't know, I just felt like maybe I could salvage the story... ?**


	10. I Go To The Beach

**Beach day! :) Enjoy.**

* * *

"Mmm, this feels great," I said to Nudge, sitting beside me on the beach.

"I know," Nudge said.

Nudge, her family, the Worthers, and I were all at the beach ten minutes away from the neighborhood.

I met the Worthers at their house early this morning so we could head to the beach for a long day of mental repose. We'd brought a huge picnic and a battery-operated radio so we could listen to music. Nudge's two little sisters, her little brother, and Georgia were all splashing away in the away in the waves under careful supervision of the mothers. Raymond and Nudge's dad, Derek, were standing on the other side of the beach, a beer in one hand and talking as they looked around the beach. Fang and Iggy were chillaxing on the other side of Nudge, seemingly fine for the time being.

Nudge and I were sitting back in the only two beach chairs that were brought, each holding a Jones soda and occasionally breaking the relaxing silence to vocalize inconsequential conversation.

One of Nudge's little sisters ran up to us and started whispering in Nudge's ear. I turned my head towards them and watched their interaction, amused. Nudge started to get annoyed and brought her head away from her sister's.

"Keisha, stop it! Go ask her yourself," Nudge said, exasperated. Keisha turned to me shyly, then stopped and ran towards the two mothers. "Ugh, she's so shy," Nudge said. I laughed.

"What did she want to know?" I asked, pulling my hair back and putting it into a ponytail.

"She wanted to know if you liked Pocahontas," Nudge said, re-positioning her ridiculous floppy hat (no offense, Nudge). I shivered at the idea of the movie.

"I used too, before I started babysitting Georgia," I laughed. Nudge grinned at me.

"Yeah, those girls looove indians. Rebekah, Keisha, and Georgia pretend they're indians all the time when we get together. It's kind of annoying. They try to get me and Fang to play too, but I always say no way, hose, because, you know, that's kid stuff. I have better things to with my time." Nudge closed her eyes and soaked in the sun. I saw Fang look up at the mention of his name, but when I caught his eye he shut his eyes and put his head back down on his towel.

"How old are they?" I asked Nudge.

"Keisha's ten, Micah is twelve, and Rebekah is thirteen, almost fourteen. She'll be a freshman next year," she said with an odd expression on her face. "Weird."

I nodded, but didn't say anything.

Iggy and Fang didn't seem to be talking to one another at all, and now that Nudge and I's conversation had come to an end, the only sound I heard was the constant splashing of waves and the occasional giggle of one of the girls being splashed by Nudge's brother.

Half an hour of sun bathing later, Nudge's little brother came over to the two of us. He put his fists on his hips and made a tough-guy face at me.

"Hi, I'm Micah."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you," I said.

"My sisters are shy," he announced, and I looked around him for a second to see Keisha and Rebekah standing ankle-deep in the waves and staring at us. Georgia was in her mother's arms, looking around at the beach with a finger in her mouth. "They want to ask you to play indians with them. You should do it, because it's fun, and I need a damsel in stress to save," he said matter-of-factly. I almost snorted at the mention of me being a damsel, but instead I just hid my smile behind my hand. I heard Nudge mutter something along the lines of, "Knew it would happen eventually."

Then, louder, she said, "And it's damsel in distress, loser," she said playfully. He stuck out his tongue at her and she returned the favor.

"Well, how can I say no to that?" I said. I tried getting up out of the shallow chair and pretended to fall back. "Ugh, I need your help," I wheezed, holding out my hand for his. He grasped it and pulled me up with a lot of help from myself. He kept a hold of my hand and then ran towards the water, towing me behind him. Micah, Keisha, and Rebekah all shared a similar chocolate skin tone, the same as their older sister's. All had big, beautiful, curly hair, Micah and Rebekah each had mini afros, while Keisha and Nudge had longer, black hair, more like tiny ringlets. Their shiny, dark brown eyes all looked at me apprehensively, studying me.

"So, what are we playing?" I asked them. Rebekah spoke up first.

"Well, I'm the mommy indian, and Keisha is my baby," she started. "Micah is the chief leader, but he's not doing a very good job, he's just obsessed with finding a lady to save." This earned a sound of protest from Micah. "Right now we're at the beach and me and my baby are trying to find food, but Micah is on the look out." I nodded vehemently.

"Well, this sounds like a good story so far, what's my role? Other than the stressed out damsel?" I asked with a smile. Micah blushed.

Rebekah spoke again. "Well, you can help us look for food." Keisha held out he hand for me to see tiny little pebbles with a red tint to them. Rebekah pointed the her sister's hand. "The red ones are sea-berries. The blue ones that I have," she held out her other hand for me to see, "are fish. They're harder to find, but they're better for you."

I contemplated my new role and life for a few seconds and then said to them, "Okay, I'll search for food with you two." I bent down to their level and whispered, "But then I'm going to need your help with something." I noticed Micah peering over at us, a puzzled expression on his face. Once I'd told the girls my plan, I set to work searching the beach for red and blue pebbles.

Only a few minutes into the game I'd successfully made a fool of my self by falling into the water three times (it was completely intentional, of course...), and all three times Micah looked at me exasperated, saying, "You're not supposed to damsel yet!" Another minute or two, and Georgia ran over to us and asked if she could play. Rebekah took her into her family as another baby and we continued playing until Georgia decided that Fang needed to play indians with us. I started to feel bad that Fang would deny Georgia and she would come back dejected. But Fang surprised me; he got up, albeit reluctantly, and walked with his little sister to where we were gathering rocks and setting them in little hand-dug holes in the sand.

Fang seemed to know what to do without being told. He sat in the sand in his black swim trunks and started picking out pebbles. He didn't pay attention to the pebbles, I suspect on purpose, because he was about to dump them in the pit with the sea-berries when Keisha slapped his hand out of the way. He looked at her with an unconventional grin and she frowned at him. He grabbed at her and pulled her onto his lap and started tickling her. The cutest, most contagious little laugh erupted from the usually silent little girl that I had to laugh along with them both.

Rebekah walked over to me and whispered in my ear. "We should do it now." I nodded at her, then moved forward a few steps and grabbed Keisha's hand.

"The plan is in motion," I said quietly, so Micah wouldn't hear. Keisha stopped giggling and nodded. I focused on finding the right spot, and then, I heard the cue.

Keisha screamed and I fell back into the water, waving my arms up and down even though I was only sitting on my butt. I saw Fang stand up really fast and almost forgot to wave my arms for a minute. He looked genuinely concerned for a moment, and then his appearance changed to confused, and then back to its regular solemn disposition.

I continued to wail theatrically and watched as Micah ran towards the little cluster, yelling, "What's going on?"

"Help her!" Rebekah cried. "The warrior Bear Heart from the beach tribe has slain her, she needs medical assistance!"

I tried not to giggle as Micah ran to help me up. He was almost big enough to carry me, but decided not to at the last minute, figuring it was better to just support me. I so badly wanted to giggle as I looked down at the facial expression he was wearing, all tough and man like. He walked me in towards the shore and the adults, who had been standing there slightly questioning until now, clapped appreciatively, only stopping when I was safely back in the chair. Nudge looked over at me as soon as Micah left, saying something about getting the right medicine and killing Bear Heart.

"You're really good with kids," she said. I shrugged, finally able to giggle ridiculously, though, if anyone asks, I don't giggle.

"Yeah, I guess," I said. Kids are just... easy. They're immature sometimes, yeah, but... they're sweet, and innocent, and extremely uncomplicated. They say what they want, do what they want... It's just easier to handle them. They don't have it in their minds yet that they know whats best, and they'll only fight you minimally for the things they think they need. I've always been much better with kids than people my own age, and especially bad with people that are older.

"No, I'm not kidding, I never would've done something like that just because my brother wanted to save someone," Nudge said with disregard.

"It's easy enjoyment," I said without thinking. "I mean, I don't really try. I just wanted to get out of the game."

"Yeah, okay, Max," Nudge said, leaning back in her chair with a knowing smile. I rolled my eyes, but knew she wouldn't see it.

Later, after Micah had cover my "wound" with green rocks and sand, Fang had come to sit back down, and we'd eaten lunch hours before, the sun was positioning itself against the horizon. The sky was turning orange and pink and fading back into the blue, and everyone was just listening peacefully to the music. The four adults were still chatting a ways away, the kids were all resting on a large blanket ten feet in front of us, and the teenagers… well, we were just trying not to laugh hysterically.

Iggy had decided to show off and, subsequently, make a fool out of himself. He tried to do a back flip in the sand on a whim, after Nudge and Fang both made comments about their negative disposition in the belief of his ability to do so. Turns out, they were completely sound in their reasoning and Iggy… well, Iggy was completely soaked. He landed badly on his knee and rolled into the water. The mothers, standing twenty feet or so out of the way, gasped loudly and started to step forward as Ray and Derek laughed off his maladroit stumbling. The kids barely noticed, but Nudge, Fang, and I launched into a fit of laugher. Iggy slumped over in an extremely abashed fashion, and insisted on changing the topic every time one of us caught our breath enough to say something, only to burst into another giggling fit every time he deflected our comments.

By the time it was time to leave, I was just super happy. It was the first time in a long time that I wasn't constantly thinking about how weird it is without my best friend here. Not to say that she wasn't missed, but… I just had a feeling that even when she wasn't around, I'd be fine.

That didn't stop me from gushing with her about my day when I got home, though. She told me about her boring day binge-watching Supernatural and I reassured her that I wasn't planning on forgetting her anytime soon after she heard the story about my day. After that, I realized that Nudge had texted me an hour before, while I was chatting with JJ, and hurriedly opened the message.

_yo gurl, 2day was super fun, we haf to do __ths w El._

I slowly typed back.

_yeah, that'd be fun! _

I put my phone down on my bedside table and got into my PJs, slipping under the covers for a good, long, rest. I was almost asleep when I heard another _bing_ from my phone. I groaned and expected another text from Nudge, but was surprised.

_hey that was fun. thnx for coming._

I frowned.

"How odd," I said aloud to myself, and then dropped my phone back on the nightstand and waited to fall asleep.

* * *

**Yeah right, guys, I know you know who that's from, it's not like it's a surprise. I won't even say it, because you should know who it's from. I'm building a friendship here! I'm trying, anyways. **

**Yeah, yeah, I'm continuing the story. Everyone likes this one better anyways, I've gotten like… no reviews though. I hope you didn't stop following the story once I put it on hiatus. :( That would make me really sad, but I'd understand, at the same time.**

**Anyways, sorry I didn't get this up before Thanksgiving, I was going to wish you all a great holiday, but nonetheless, I hope it was wonderful anyways :)**

**Hopefully I'll update before Christmas, too! :)**


	11. I Drink Too Much NyQuil

**I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas! :) Have a happy new year!**

* * *

During the week, though I was constantly insulted by my homeroom teacher and loaded with catch up work, I found myself being rather content with my second week of school. It's not, of course, like I wasn't getting lost and asking for my friends' help around the large school, but I was getting relatively good grades in all my classes (except math, but, who really cares?).

I felt like I might be getting a cough as well. My throat was itchy and sore, and I kept coughing up a lung every five minutes.

Wednesday at lunch, Nudge had the brilliant idea to invite us all over to her house after school on Thursday. Nudge directed the invitation to Ella, Fang, Iggy, and I; we were all sitting at the table together, eating horrible school-cooked soup (that did absolutely nothing to help my throat) and giving each other withering looks as Nudge droned on.

"We can totally watch movies the whole night! I have some popcorn and skittles, and we can snack on those, if you guys want to bring soda, you can, you know how my parents are, and, oh! We just got the Titanic, I haven't seen that yet, but I know how it ends, so maybe not. How about… the Notebook? Or Warm Bodies? I love that movie! I could watch it all day, it's just so cute! So, now that we've got that settled..." I tuned out her rant and considered my options.

On one hand, go to Nudge's house and have a little fun and eat mass amounts of unhealthy food. On the other hand, stay home, fight with my mom about who has to cook, and then finally make Aaron do as soon as he gets in the door, and finish the night with a few hours of homework. I honestly didn't know which one would make me feel more sick.

"I think I'm babysitting Georgia tomorrow," I said, at the same exact time Fang said, "I'm watching my sister." We glared at each other for a few seconds, then glanced at Nudge.

"No," Fang said, "I can watch her tomorrow, you can have the night off," he said.

"No, my schedule says that I'm looking after her tomorrow," I growled, immediately starting in on a coughing fit.

"Are you okay?" Nudge asked, but Fang talked over her.

"I don't have practice or anything, it's fine, I'll do it."

Fang and I kept up the glaring as Nudge huffed.

"I can fix this," she said. "Let's just hang out at your house, Fang."

Fang and I were silent, and our glares turned into blaming glances.

"Sounds great," Fang mumbled.

"Glad it's all worked out," I said.

Nudge continued on with food ideas in a cheery disposition. It's not that I don't love her, of course, but really, the Notebook?

The lunch bell rang and I headed back to class, Fang walking stiffly beside me as we headed to Geometry.

"Thanks, now we're both stuck watching something stupid, like, the Titanic," he said.

"That's all your fault, buddy," I said. "If you had just let me take my shift, at least one of us would have survived those sappy, stupid movies."

"Well, we'll just have to suffer together. Good going," he said, and rolled his eyes.

"Well, at least we'll have to watch something Georgia-appropriate," I said, thinking positive.

"Yeah, because Veggie Tales or Strawberry Shortcake is _so much _better," Fang said, chuckling quietly as we walked into Mrs. Shrute's room and took our seats, next to each other. He started pulling out his homework, and I followed suit, dreading tomorrow's movie showing.

* * *

Georgia and I watched Pocahontas again. I fell asleep on the couch and didn't do any housework, which I felt bad about, but when I woke up at the end of the movie, I saw Georgia asleep right next to me and I dozed off again, not seeing any reason to disturb her, since there really wasn't much we needed to do.

Georgia woke me up a little later to say that she needs to clean her room, so I trudged sleepily up the stairs with her, holding hands. I stepped into the bathroom and looked through the Worthers' medicine cabinet and tipped a little cold medicine into my mouth, sure they wouldn't care.

When I entered Georgia's room, I instructed her to make her bed, and when it was nice and neat, I promptly fell on it and crossed my hands over my stomach, breaking my position only to point at what needed to be taken care of.

After she had put all of her dirty clothes in the hamper, and her clean clothes in her dresser, her toys in the toy box and her mini nail polishes on top of her mini vanity, she climbed onto the bed with a book in her hand.

I laid there with her for a while and read to her, first an old copy of Winnie the Pooh, and then The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The tired girl fell asleep again and I just stayed there for a while, not wanting to wake her up.

* * *

I woke up to someone nudging my shoulder. I assumed it to be Georgia, so I said, "What is it, Sweetie?"

The reply I received was slightly disturbing, as it was male and very deep.

"You can go home now," it said.

My eyes snapped open and I looked at Fang. He was laughing noiselessly at the expression on my face.

"Oh, you're not Georgia."

Fang shook his head as I glanced down at a little head of black, shiny hair. Georgia was still asleep.

I moved her slightly to one side as I shifted easily off the bed, standing up and starting to cough.

"Wow, you're coughing a lot," Fang said, as we walked out of Georgia's room. I shut the door behind us and we headed downstairs. I swayed a little on the steps and Fang put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"You okay there?" he said.

"No, yeah, I'm fine. Just waking up," I said.

He nodded and continued past me down the stairs. I gathered my things and realized again that I'd done nothing to help out around the house.

I stopped in the kitchen before I left and saw Fang standing at the counter, eating PB&amp;J. I started to say something, but broke into a coughing fit. He heard me and turned, leaning against the counter in his black t-shirt and jeans, sandwich in one hand, and a glass of milk in the other. For some reason I noticed his hair was a little messy, probably from practice or something. I mean, it's not something I usually notice about guys. It's probably just because... his hair is messy.

An aching in my head appeared and I had to lean on the doorway.

"Listen, sorry I didn't get any work done today, I totally just zonked out most of the afternoon. Your laundry is still in the living room, and I didn't tidy up or anything."

Fang looked at me oddly.

"You do my laundry?"

I blushed, for some reason only now feeling embarrassed. "Yeah," I said, rubbing the persistent pang in my temple.

"I thought my mom did that," he said, suddenly looking uncomfortable. A few awkward seconds slid by, and I decided to change the topic.

"Yeah, uh, Georgia cleaned her room, as you saw," I said, shaking my head and closing my eyes from the ache in my head.

"Uh, yeah," he said, taking the hint. "Um, are you sure you're okay?" He set down his glass of milk and his PB&amp;J on the counter and started towards me.

"No, I'm fish," I reassured him with a smile. "I mean, fine."

Fang stood there looking at me for a few seconds with a funny look on his face.

"Oh, last thing, my throat was really bothering me, so I took some cold medicine," I said.

Fang's face went from looking funny to smiling.

"Oh, okay."

"Was that okay? I'm soupy if wasn't, I'll buy you a new bottle," I said. He must know that it was only a little bit, it's not like I downed half a bottle. I had four of those little cuppy things full, it seemed right to me.

Fang walked closer and held out his hand.

"Come on Max, I'll drive you home," he said.

"No, that's okay, I can drive," I said, clutching the keys in my hand tighter and turning around to walk towards the door.

I heard quick footsteps behind me as I bumped into the wall. I moved to the doorway and Fang was suddenly there. I gasped.

"You're so fast!" I said.

Fang was laughing now. I laughed too, because there must be something funny happening. I looked around for whatever was making him laugh, and then something grabbed my keys and my bag out of my hands. I turned back around and scowled at Fang.

"I'm perfically cabaple of driving myself," I said.

"Oh, yeah, of course you are," Fang grinned. "Here, I'll just walk you out," he said, motioning for me to walk ahead of him. As I passed him, with my head up and eyes shut, I stubbed my toe on the table in the entry way. I heard a deep chuckle behind me and scowled, but otherwise ignored it and continued out to my car. Fang ran around me to the driver's side, opened the door, sat down, and started the car. I let out a sound resembling something between a battle cry and a dog's whine, then stomped over to the passenger's side.

I growled at Fang and he shrugged at me. He backed out of the driveway and I was half tempted to hit him as he started driving down the street to my house, but then I saw a dog walking outside on the lawn and got distracted.

"Aw, poor puppy," I said. "Lost, and all alone."

"It's owner is throwing a frisbee for it, ten feet away," Fang said. I looked around and then grunted as I saw a boy letting a frisbee fly, indeed, ten feet away.

Once I was done staring stonily out the window, Fang drove into my driveway. I got out with my bag and walked around to the other side of the car with my hand held out. Fang passed me my car keys and then shoved his hands in his pants' pockets.

"So… Night, Max."

I frowned, and then tried to cross my arms over my chest, but swayed off balance instead. Fang's arms shot out to steady me, and when I didn't shove him off, he lead me to the front door of my house.

"How are you going to get to…" I couldn't think of the word. "To your building?" I finally said. Fang chuckled, and chewed on his lip, looking at me like I was crazy.

"You know, you're really only supposed to take one or two of those Nyquil cups," he said. I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Nevermind."

A few more seconds of standing awkwardly close to each other transpired and then I cleared my throat and said, "See you tomorrow day."

And then he left, with a cute smile and an odd look over the shoulder.

I shouldered my way inside and my mom, sitting on the couch with Aaron, took one look at me and said, "What's wrong with you?"

"Something about Nyquil."

In my peripherals, I noticed my mom share a confused look with Aaron.

Instead of trying to explain anything, which, I assure you that I have no idea how to explain anything that went on tonight.

* * *

**Well, I hope you guys liked it! I tried to include a little more Fax, by popular demand :)**

**Hope you guys have had a wonderful holiday season! **

**Please review!**


	12. I Feel Third-Wheeled

**Well, here's the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it :)**

* * *

School on Thursday was a little odd. I remembered some little details of the night before, like how in my head I noted Fang's messy hair. And later, that he had a cute smile. And the fact that he walked me up to my door, just like a proper date. Which is ridiculous, because he usually hates me, and I'm pretty sure I don't care much for him either.

When I got on the bus, I sat in my usual seat with Ella, and Fang was near us. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact, although, when I was staring ahead, I could see him turn his head in my direction ever so slightly through my peripherals. And in homeroom, we didn't say much, but Iggy walked in and started conversing with me about drama auditions again (apparently they've decided on a one act play for their competition). Later, he talked to me briefly about one of the assignments, and everything seemed to be getting back to normal. No weird tension. Which felt a lot better, because the awkward between us was getting a little… awkward.

School seemed to get over quickly, and in no time, I was entering Fang's house at the usual time. Fang followed me in and we set foot to the living room. He said that he'd like to look at movies for tonight. A few minutes in, Georgia got off the bus, and rushed inside to see us.

Walking in the door, Georgia attacked me with a hug and I bent to lift in her onto my hip before she could topple me over.

"Hey there, baby cakes, what's shakin'?" I said with a laugh.

"'Shakin'?" she asked. "What's that mean?"

I walked further into the house to sit us down on the couch, and watched as Fang searched through films on his movie rack. The phone rang and instinctively, I got up to answer it with Georgia still in my hold, but realizing that Fang was home, I sat back down and let him get it.

"'Shakin' means 'happenin.'" I said, as she crawled off my lap to sit on the couch. "It means 'what's going on?' or 'how are you?'

"Oh."

"So?" I prompted her. "What's shakin?'"

Georgia shrugged and settled herself against my side. "I don't know."

I nodded. "That's always cool."

I heard Fang's voice raise a tiny bit in the kitchen, and curious, as always, I got up to listen at the door. I'm not eavesdropping, I'm just... okay, I'm eavesdropping. Maybe I'll tune in to a lead about Iggy and Fang's mysterious wrangle.

"Nudge, come on, we already have a ton of people coming over." There was a long pause as Nudge responded. Guess I won't be finding out about anything "juicy" as Nudge might say. "I'm aware of that, but if you didn't know already, our living room isn't huge and we have 7 people piling in to watch a movie. We don't need two more people." Another long pause. I wondered who Nudge wanted to invite over. I certainly didn't know who, I thought this was as big as our group was. "No, Nudge-no, you know it's not like that-" Fang started to get frustrated. "Alright, bring them, it's fine."

I heard Fang slam the phone down on the receiver and scurried back over to the couch to act like I hadn't just been listening in. Fang walked in, rolling his eyes.

"What was that all about?" I asked. He glanced over at me as if he'd forgotten I was in here, and then walked over to the movie rack to resume picking out movies.

"Nudge wants to bring over some more people."

I nodded. "So..."

"So what?"

"Who's coming over?"

Fang turned and glared. "Were you eavesdropping?"

I regarded him with a questioning stare. So what if I was? It's not like he was having a personal conversation.

"Whatever," he said. "Doesn't matter."

An image of Fang glaring at me in class last week flashed through my mind, and I was reminded of Fang and Iggy's little dispute about something unknown. A realization that Fang was probably upset with me. Maybe it was because of how curious I'd been into the fight I had to break up, or maybe he was just frustrated with the fact that we had to watch movies with a squeal-y Nudge by our side. The hopeful part of me thought that maybe he was just tired, or angry at Nudge. The logical part said that he might be tired and it might have nothing to do with me. I hoped either of those were the case. This early in the game, the game of moving to a new school, that is, I didn't need any dramatic issues to deal with.

An exclamation from Georgia pulled me from my thoughts, and I looked down at her and her big smile. "What?"

Georgia was pointing out the window at something, and I turned, expecting to see a squirrel or something in the back yard. Instead I saw Iggy walking through the gate.

My face went bug eyed for a few seconds as Georgia _literally_ leaped off the couch screaming, "IGGY!"

Iggy walked in behind a bouncing Georgia and plopped down on the couch with enough space in between us for Georgia to hop up. Georgia seemed to love Iggy a little bit more than me. Well, maybe not _more_ than me, I'm her favorite, but, she did seem pretty attached to him.

"Hey, Max, Fang," Iggy said, nodding in our respective directions. "And hello pumpkin-patch kid!" Georgia giggled shyly at Iggy and I couldn't help but smile.

"Hola," I said.

"Hey," Fang grunted.

Iggy looked around. "What's up?"

"Thomas and Angel showed up at Nudge's unexpectedly and so she's bringing them over," Fang said with distaste.

Iggy whooped. "Awesome!"

I wondered why Fang was so bummed to have them coming over and Iggy was so excited. I thought about what dirty gossip could come of this.

You know, because I'm really into gossip and all that.

"Yeah, or not," Fang said. I watched Iggy roll his eyes. Georgia got up and walked to the toy box in the corner of the room and started to play with her dolls, Barbie and Sally and Georgia (she named one after herself, the booger). "Iggy, do you want to play with me?" Georgia cocked her head to the point where it was on her shoulder and batted her eyelashes and I had to keep in a giggle. Iggy didn't seem to notice how infatuated she was with him.

"You're still sore over your favorite jeans, are you?" Iggy said, getting up to sit on the chair by the toy box. He grabbed a train from the box and absent mindedly crashed the car that Barbie and Sally were driving in. Georgia and mini-Georgia looked absolutely appalled.

Fang ignored him, confirming Iggy's suspicions.

"I asked if you had any you wouldn't mind contributing to science, and you said sure," Iggy said. I started to get really confused as to where this was going. "So I told him to grab a pair from the basket in your room, I didn't think it was a big deal."

Fang turned. "Well, one might think that if they've recently been worn, they're probably a pair of good jeans. Only common sense, Igs."

The conversation stopped there. Someone was knocking on the front door and Fang asked one of us to get it. Iggy was up before I was so I let him open the door and I just sat for a minute, looking between Georgia and her car wreck and Fang and his movie-pile.

Then Iggy and Ella walked through chatting animatedly about something apparently very funny. I waved to her and she waved back, but Ella and Iggy just continued to talk. Georgia started to look very upset again when she realized Iggy was not going to be playing with her anymore. I went to sit in Iggy's previous seat so I could play with Georgia.

For a few minutes, I was just playing with a barbie doll (I think I grabbed Sally) and listening to Iggy and Ella talk about their monologues for the drama try outs. The Underground Lovebirds third-wheeled me, and Fang searched through his movie rack a little too interested in the disney section. I was still just the babysitter for the moment.

* * *

**Okay, so, I know I've been gone a really long time, it's just this year has been crazy. But I'm sure you don't want to hear excuses, you just want me to write more. :)**

**Um, I've had a few comments made about the fact that they would like more Fax, and trust me, I would too, but I do like to be as realistic to every situation as I possibly can, so it will be a little while. Also, the fact that I'm building up Max's and Ella's and Nudge's and Iggy's relationships as well is bothersome. Does everyone feel that way? I do this because in a realistic setting, this is exactly how it would go. I promise there will be more Fax soon, I hope this was good for now, but I've always been a firm believer that, and the original three books did a better job but still not quite right, that the story should be about Max AND the flock. Not Max and Fang and Angel and those other three people that he mentions sometimes. So I do think I'll continue to include them as a vital part of this story.**

**So, it was just a filler chapter because I felt bad for not updating in three months. But Next chapter will be a fun movie watching experience with the whole flock, lots of tension, and hopefully some Fax!**


	13. I Never

**Hey guys! Hope you like this, it's a bit of a long one this time :)**

* * *

_For a few minutes, I was just playing with a barbie doll (I think I grabbed Sally) and listening to Iggy and Ella talk about their monologues for the drama try outs. The Underground Lovebirds third-wheeled me, and Fang searched through his movie rack a little too interested in the Disney section. I was still just the babysitter for the moment._

Everyone looked up as the front door opened and three people walked in through the mudroom.

"Guess who?" said a voice I didn't recognize.

A boy around Iggy's height walked in with a grin on his face and a telltale glint in his eyes. I would know that glint anywhere. That's a trouble maker's glint. (If I may, I see it in my own eyes every morning in the mirror, but I don't want to sound too proud of my self...)

Nudge stepped in behind him holding a little girl's hand. She was an adorable little blue eyed, blonde haired kid. And she definitely took after her (I'm assuming) big brother's glint.

"Hey you guys!" Nudge chirped. "Oh! Max, this is Gazzy," she pointed to the boy, and then the little girl, "and this is Angel!"

Georgia looked up at the mention of their names and screamed, "Angel!"

"Georgia!" was Angel's happy reply. I watched as they jumped up and down together.

Gazzy had made his way over to greet me, so I stood up and took his hand for a good ol' fashioned hand shake. Wow, I can't remember the last time someone shook my hand.

"Max," I said.

"Gazzy."

I nodded at the odd name but didn't ask. I looked around the room to find that Georgia and Angel were scurrying to Georgia's room to play and Nudge went over to help (I say that loosely) Fang look at movies. Ella and Iggy got up and went to the kitchen for snacks. Gazzy sat down on the couch and I just sat back down on the chair in the corner. I couldn't help feeling a little out of place, even though I've gotten along really well with everyone so far. I've never actually had a movie night with a group of people so big. It was always just JJ and I, sometimes Sam.

Ella and Iggy came back from the kitchen a few minutes later with a few bowls of popcorn and made a second trip for some sodas to set on the coffee table.

Nudge and Fang must have decided on some choices because they walked over grappling over a pink movie case and some other neutral ones.

"Alright," Nudge started. "We're voting on these movies."

"Except, not the ones Nudge picked out, just these ones," Fang said, trying to get in front of Nudge so no one could see her movies.

"Except _only_ these ones," she said. "I brought Mean Girls and The Prince and Me." I could pretty much feel everyone roll their eyes.

"_Or,_" Fang said, "we could watch the Avengers, or the Matrix."

Honestly, I wasn't too interested in either of the chick flicks. Avengers for me. I was a little surprised at the lack of Disney in the choices, thinking of the way Fang was staring at the Disney titles.

"Okay, raise your hand if you want to watch Mean Girls," Nudge commanded. No one raised their hand. "The Prince and Me?" Ella raised her hand but then changed her mind and took it back down. Nudge gaped at her, looking very hurt. Ella shrugged guiltily.

"Now, raise your hand for the Avengers." Everyone's hand went up except for Nudge's, who's was tucked into her other arm in a pout. "Sorry Nudge," Fang said. Nudge stuck her tongue out at him and he did it back, then turned around to put the movie in.

The commercials started playing and Fang sat down with the remote, skipping them all. I noticed that he sat as far away on the couch from Gazzy as possible. I wonder how much he really loved those jeans.

I got up to grab a soda and didn't wait for an invitation to sit on the couch. I scooted between Mr. Angsty and Gazzy.

Gazzy was holding a bowl of popcorn, so I reached over and grabbed a handful to munch out of. I turned and offered some to Fang, whose head was resting on his fist. He glanced at the offering and then back at the TV. I retracted my hand and mentally shrugged but I felt his fingers brush against my hand as he grabbed some popcorn.

I enjoyed the movie as much as every other time I watched it, and everyone else seemed to as well. I laughed, I crushed on Iron Man shamelessly, studied the Black Widow's combative techniques and ate mass amounts of popcorn.

About half way through the action, I noticed a distinct lack of noise upstairs. Worried that the girls might be getting into trouble I excused myself to check on them.

Upstairs, I made to stand in the doorway and watch. They were just playing dress up and having tea and plastic scones, like any stereotypical little girl party. And it was adorable. Although, if anyone asks, I didn't use that word.

They asked me to stay and have tea with them but I respectfully (and hastily) declined and hauled ass out of there so I couldn't be tempted with the bambi eyes. I swear I have this sixth sense where I know they're coming.

On my way back to the stairwell, I bumped into Fang.

"Sorry," I said.

"You're fine."

"Oh, wow, that was forward," I snickered. I heard Fang scoff and I almost thought I saw a smile, but it was more likely to have been small yawn or a frown. I mean, this _is_ Fang we're talking about. I was expecting more of a come back than that.

"Sorry, I was talking to the wall," he said.

And there it is.

I continued down the hall and down the stairs to sit down on the couch, and decided I'd do something nice for Fang while he was upstairs. I don't know what came over me, but I had the sudden impulsive desire to irritate Fang.

A minute later, Fang was sitting beside me, glaring angrily as he sat between Gazzy and I. Hoping to annoy him further, I leaned in close to ask him a question.

"Can I have some popcorn?" I whispered.

I glanced at Fang's face, which was set in a scowl. His jaw muscle tightened. He angrily grabbed handful of popcorn from the bowl Gazzy was holding and dropped it gracelessly into my lap.

Okay, I guess I asked for that one. I grumbled a sarcastic _thanks_ and started picking at the fluffy corn kernels in my lap.

* * *

As soon as the movie was over, Nudge suggested we watch a second. Mr. And Mrs. Worther's wouldn't be home for at least three more hours, and Georgia and Angel were still playing upstairs.

There was some grumbling about another movie, I don't think anyone really felt like watching another one. I, for one, was itching to get up and move. It was still light out. I assumed it was warm as well, and I hadn't been out yet all day. I got up to stretch as everyone started throwing around ideas.

"We could play a game," Ella suggested.

"Yeah, what about truth or dare? I got the app on my iPod…" Gazzy suggested, searching for his gadget. I mentally groaned.

"Or we could play seven minutes in Heaven," Nudge said. Iggy glanced towards Ella and then quickly away.

"Haha…" Iggy laughed awkwardly.

"Oh come on," I spoke up. "You guys act like some teenagers right out of a crappy fan fiction."

"What's that?"

"Never mind," I said. "I think we should play something a little less… cliche."

"And what's that mean?" Nudge asked.

"Cliche?" I asked, surprised.

"No, I know what cliche is," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, what do you have in mind?"

"Oh," I said. "Well, I don't know. You guys ever play 'I Never?'"

Everyone had a blank stare on their faces.

"Alright, I'll explain, but, first, can we go outside and do this? It's stuffy in here."

* * *

After I checked on the girls again, I joined everyone outside, sitting on the grass in the Worther's back yard. I sat down beside Gazzy and Iggy in the grass, facing the sun.

"Alright, how does this work?" Nudge asked, looking to me.

"Okay, so we have to have some kind of food or drink to play. Candy would work."

"I think there's some in the cabinet," Nudge said. "Fang, do you guys still keep Georgia's halloween candy in the cupboard?" Fang nodded. "I'll go get it," she said.

Nudge was back in 10 seconds with a big plastic bag of candy in her hand. I took it as my cue to continue.

"Alright, we should each have ten or fifteen pieces of candy. We'll go around the circle saying things that we've never done - for instance, 'I've never been to Europe,' or 'I've never stayed up all night.' After every statement, anyone who's done that thing eats a piece of their candy. Whoever eats all their candy first is the winner."

Everyone nodded, seeming interested in the game.

"Alright, Ella, you first."

Ella leaned forward and looked up in thought, pulling her black hair into a ponytail on top of her head. Then she tapped her fingers to her chin, and smiled. "Never have I ever farted in an elevator and blamed in on someone else," she said with a proud face.

"Okay," Nudge barked, unwrapping a piece of candy and shoving it in her mouth. "It was ONE time, and it wasn't even that big of a deal. There was a cute guy in the elevator, and my stomach was upset, okay?"

"No, it was not okay! You blamed it on me!"

Everyone was laughing at them now, and I couldn't help join in. Nudge, mouth full of taffy, motioned with a huff to continue on with the game. After Ella it was Gazzy. He took a while to think of one, and eventually went with, "Never have I ever run from a police officer…?"

It was a few seconds, but then we heard some quiet crinkling coming from Iggy's direction. We all stared at him, not so much with shock, but with awe that no one had heard the story.

"Okay," Iggy sighed. "I was 8 years old, okay? This cop was just strolling around and I was in the alley way between Jazz's Java and that other store, and I was trying to light a trashcan on fire. I just barely escaped with my freedom," Iggy finished dramatically. Another round of laughter erupted from the circle.

"Alright Max, your turn," Gazzy said, turning to me. I smiled at him.

"Sure. Um…" I thought hard about something I'd never done. Maybe I should do ol' faithful, _Never have I ever puked on or after an amusement park ride. _Instead, I chose, "Never have I ever given someone a fake number."

Both Nudge and Ella reached for a piece of candy, and I snickered. Iggy was next, and he took a while to get one.

"Never have I ever peed in the shower and/or pool." Iggy looked around as pretty much everyone took a piece of candy and unwrapped it. Myself included. I'm not ashamed. I'll admit it, I pee in the shower. Not in pools though, that's just disgusting.

"Ugh! You guys are gross," Iggy squirmed. I rolled my eyes at him, thinking he was kidding, but after his face didn't change for a few seconds, I realized that Iggy was kind of a germaphobe.

Fang was next. He also took awhile, but I wasn't sure if it was because he couldn't think of a good one, or because he needed to prepare his unused voice. "Never have I ever been too drunk to do my job."

Everyone looked at Fang like he was crazy. This group of kids obviously wasn't the kind of group to drink underage. Fang was looking at me expectantly, and I blushed in recognition.

"Oh, well, that's not really…" I started, embarrassed to think about last night again.

"Whoa," Gazzy said, looking at me. "What's that story?"

"Yeah, I think we can all agree that that sounds interesting," Ella prompted.

"I mean, it's not a big deal," I said. "You know how I was really sick yesterday?" Everyone but Gazzy nodded, and I continued. "Well, I got really stuffy and my throat really hurt, so I just took some NyQuil from the Worther's medicine cabinet."

"Some?" Fang scoffed. "She downed four of those cups. By the time I got home from practice, she was definitely drunk."

Everyone was laughing at my mis-prescription of medicine.

"What'd she say?" Ella said, grinning. "Anything funny?"

Honestly, all I remember about last night was thinking about how cute he looked when he smiled. I mean, I was obviously really drunk. I must have been imagining it all, because Fang doesn't smile.

As everyone was waiting in anticipation for something embarrassing to come out, Fang turned to me with a half smile and a cheeky glint in his eyes.

_"So… Night, Max."_

_I frowned, and then tried to cross my arms over my chest, but swayed off balance instead. Fang's arms shot out to steady me, and when I didn't shove him off, he lead me to the front door of my house._

_"How are you going to get to…" I couldn't think of the word. "To your building?" I finally said. Fang chuckled, and chewed on his lip, looking at me like I was crazy._

_"You know, you're really only supposed to take one or two of those Nyquil cups," he said. I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Nevermind."_

_A few more seconds of standing awkwardly close to each other transpired and then I cleared my throat and said, "See you tomorrow day."_

_And then he left, with a cute smile and an odd look over the shoulder._

_"_Nah," he decided, staring at me. "But she sure did act funny towards me."

That got some "whoops," and "oohs!" from the girls, and I glared at Fang.

"I did not."

Fang made a face that just screamed, _punch me in the face._ I was tempted to accommodate him, but Nudge was eager to get to her turn, which was just as well.

"Okay. Never have I ever pooped," said matter-of-factly. She glanced at me and Ella, and even though my face was burning, I got the girl code message.

The boys were all busy eating candy with looks on their faces like, _that's an odd one. _Then, one by one, they all realized that we weren't eating candy.

Gazzy said, "Oh, come on! That's such a myth!"

* * *

**Okay, I hope you liked that little bit of Fax! I'm trying to be nice and start building Max and Fang's relationship. :)**

**Please review, it means a lot!**


	14. I Can't Believe Him

**Hey guys! Someone pointed out that it looks like I made a review on my own story, but that was my friend, she reads my fanfiction on my account, so that probably looks a little awkward, sorry :)**

**Also, some people didn't get my little joke at the end. There's a myth that girls don't poop, (less of a myth and more of a truth... :D ) and I just knew that Nudge would say something like that. So I figured that would be a cute way to end the chapter. '**

**I do think I'll be continuing on with Thursday night from last chapter... :)**

**Today: Will Max get her answers as to why Fang and Iggy have occasional falling outs? Who knows?!**

**Also, I realized that I haven't done a disclaimer yet, and honestly, I think they're kind of redundant, just because _obviously_ not James Patterson, just saying. So, yeah, disclaimer fooshmaimer.**

**Also, yeah, someone pointed out that my plot is a lot different from where it was going to go. Yeah, it kind of just changed. I figured there are enough abuse stories, maybe I'll incorporate it, maybe not. I think I'm going to go with this for the time being though… Thank you for pointing it out, because I never would've addressed it, hah!**

**Read on, you guys!**

* * *

_Fang made a face that just screamed, punch me in the face. I was tempted to accommodate him, but Nudge was eager to get to her turn, which was just as well._

_"Okay. Never have I ever pooped," said matter-of-factly. She glanced at me and Ella, and even though my face was burning, I got the girl code message._

_The boys were all busy eating candy with looks on their faces like, that's an odd one. Then, one by one, they all realized that we weren't eating candy._

_Gazzy said, "Oh, come on! That's such a myth!"_

Later, after Nudge won I Never (which was essentially a pat on the back and _c__ongratulations, you've done the most embarrassing things!_) we started talking about weekend plans.

"I'm free the whole weekend, as usual," I said. "Unless you have another Saturday practice, Fang," I said, glancing at him. I often had to correlate my babysitting schedule with him in case his sports schedule changed.

"Nah, you're good," he said.

I looked around the circle. The sun was starting to set, and where I was placed so I could face it, the last of the suns rays fell on me. I smiled in the warmth, leaning back on my hands in the grass. Beside me, Gazzy was laying down in the grass with his hands behind his head. To my left, Iggy was cross legged on the ground, looking around aimlessly. Across from me, Ella and Nudge were laughing at some inside joke that no one got, and the rest of us were just staring at them. Except for Fang.

Fang was leaning back on his elbows, his body stretched out in front of him, his legs crossed one over the other. His long, black hair went haywire with a sudden gust of wind and he shifted his weight onto his right elbow, raising his left hand to shove his hair away from his face. In doing so, his eyes slid my way and I pretended to be staring at the grass just past his head, but somehow, I doubt he missed my stare.

"Well," Nudge continued, "I entered this radio contest the other day," (here there were a few looks of _of course you did, Nudge_) "and I actually won! Isn't that awesome?! It's so cool, it's like they saw my name or something, and were just like, 'that girl sounds awesome! let's get her some prizes! You know?"

Ella laughed with Nudge, and the rest of us just smiled. Classic Nudge.

"So?" Gazzy prompted, nudging her foot. "What's the prize?"

"Oh!" Nudge said. "Duh, that should've been the first thing I said, right? I got a party!"

At this point the faces around the circle turned from anticipating to confused.

"Like, an ice cream party? Or..." Ella offered.

"Oh, no, of course not. I wouldn't be this excited over an ice cream party! Well, maybe I would. But no, you know that place they've been advertising on 92.3? That paintball place?"

Iggy gasped and sat up straight. "No way! You got a party at the Paintball Powerhouse?"

Nudge nodded enthusiastically, clapping her hands together. Iggy went in for a high five and Nudge tried to satisfy it, but they missed, and everyone started laughing.

"Smooth," I said, which earned me a punch in the arm from Iggy.

"Anyways," Nudge said, "I just thought, _hey, this would be fun to bring my brat siblings to_! But when I asked them, they weren't really up for it. So, then I said, _hey, a party is six people, I have a group of six friends, it's perfect!_"

"Oh, nice to know we were your first choice," Fang commented. I rolled my eyes at him, and Nudge did too.

"Oh, shut up Fang, at least you were a choice," she said. Fang stuck his tongue out at her and Nudge returned the favor. "So, you guys up for it? Saturday night, 7 o'clock?"

"Sure," I said.

"I'm totally up for it!" Gazzy said, throwing a huge grin her way. "Sounds awesome!"

Everyone else exclaimed their agreements, and it was decided. Saturday night, we would all head to Paintball Powerhouse and battle it out.

After that, Ella said that her mom was expecting her home by six, so she left. This reminded Nudge and Gazzy of the time, and they also said that they had to leave. They thanked Fang for hosting and soon, it was just Fang, Iggy, and I left outside. We went inside to sit on the couch and check on the girls. Angel was saying goodbye to Georgia, and then she scurried out the front door with her older brother and Nudge.

Georgia yawned and stretched, then informed us that she was tired, and would like to go to bed. I offered to tuck her in and Fang consented. Georgia smiled and walked over to her older brother, hugging his legs. Fang leaned down to pick her up and he kissed her cheek. Iggy and I looked at each other and grinned.

"Aw, Fang, you're such a softy," I said. He set Georgia down, and she ran to take my hand, preventing further teasing.

"Why don't you hold _me_ like that anymore, Faaang?" Iggy said in a falsetto, batting his eyelashes. I laughed loudly at them, and Fang glared at me. I bat my eyelashes at him too, and made a pouty face.

"Maybe you want to tuck her in?" I asked. "It's not too late, you could probably cuddle her and read her a book."

Fang rolled his eyes at me, and, making sure Georgia was turned around, flipped me the bird.

Laughing, I lead Georgia upstairs and down the hall to her messy room.

"Did you have fun today?" I asked her. She yawned again.

"Yeah, Angel is my best friend."

Georgia climbed on top of her bed, and I helped her under the covers.

"Is she now?" I said. She nodded.

"Max?" Georgia asked.

"What, sweetie-pie?" I said, looking around for a stuffed animal to tuck in with her. I sat on the bed and found a giraffe by my feet. I turned towards her and tickled her with the giraffe's nose. She giggled, and when I stopped, she stopped giggling, and her face adopted a thoughtful expression.

"Are you my sister?"

I was struck by the odd question. "Um..." I wanted to say no, but I had no idea why she was asking in the first place.

"It's just, Angel said that she has a babysitter, and it's her older sister. Are you my older sister, Max?"

I smiled at her young logic.

"No, Honey, I'm just your babysitter," I said, stroking her black hair and giving her a warm smile. "But if you want to know a secret," I started, leaning in for dramatic effect, "I've always wanted a sister! Maybe we could be pretend sisters," I whispered.

Georgia looked at me with a grin. "I've always wanted a sister, too!"

"Well," I said, taking her hand and shaking it. "Georgia Worthers, I dub you an honorary sister of Mackenzie Strider."

Georgia's smile was so bright, I almost had to shut my eyes so I wasn't blinded. But then she took my hand, and, acting very official-like, she shook my hand and said, "Max Strider, I dub you an honorary sister of me."

"Now," I said, changing the subject. "How about a book?"

"Sure."

* * *

After we finished _Is Your Mama a Llama? _and talked about the pictures, Georgia was well on her way to being fast alseep.

With a warm feeling inside me, I kissed Georgia's forehead and wished her good night. I turned out the lights, leaving the nightlight on the wall on, and left, quietly closing the door behind me.

I started down the hall, and was about to shuffle down the stairs when I heard an argument happening downstairs.

I remembered instantly that Iggy and Fang were left downstairs alone, and was tempted to go down stairs and break up the ensuing fight, but my curiosity got the best of me and I hunkered down at the edge of the stairs, just barely out of sight from the boys. I could see Fang's feet from where I was perched, but other than that, I couldn't see what was going on.

"Just give it up, Fang!"

"Yeah, because that's _so_ easy," Fang said. "Why don't you just mind your own?"

This is definitely about the same thing they were fighting about last week. Perhaps I was finally going to get some answers. My stomach grew upset in anticipation.

"Because!" Iggy almost yelled. Seeming to realize that, he got very hushed, and I had to strain just to hear them. "Because you've been my best friend since the fourth grade man, I'm not about to let you throw your life away for this friggin-"

"Iggy, I don't give a damn about what you're not going to let me do, okay? It's my fucking choice, now lay off-"

I heard a shove and my muscles tensed. Iggy must have shoved Fang, because Fang stumbled backwards, and then he stepped forward and I heard another push. My first instinct was to run down there and get them off each other, but in the back of my head, a voice named _P__hilomath_ insisted I stay put incase the conversation continued. By the time I was done wrestling the two voices in my head (that's a funny thought, eh?) I was about to let my instincts take over when the wrestling stopped and once again, Iggy's hushed voice rang out.

"You're a selfish bastard, you know that?" Iggy said. "You don't even get it! It's not about you!"

There was silence except for labored breathing. I started imagining different things that would make Iggy this mad, but, my lack of knowledge of either of the boys was starting to show, and I was kind of irritated with myself. _Why can't you be more personable?_ I chastised myself.

"It's not," Iggy repeated. "You have a friggin five year old sister who loves you to death, and two parents who are really proud of you!"

I started to get this itchy feeling on the back of my neck. It was honestly kind of odd to hear such candor and sincerity from Iggy. He was usually so light hearted and funny.

"Grow up and be happy that you're so lucky! I would love to have a mom or dad or a sister! Stop being such an asshole," Iggy said. My eyes wide, I watched as Iggy pushed past Fang left, slamming the door. Fang kicked the coffee table, and stomped over towards the stairs.

Still in shock, I scurried backwards. Fang made it up the stairs just in time to see me closing Georgia's door and I put on a faux smile, pushing a finger up to my lips.

Fang, acting as if I wasn't even there, pushed past me into his room. I was about to hurry down the stairs but I heard Fang slamming stuff around and I turned towards his room, much against my better judgement.

"Whoa," I started awkwardly. Not knowing how to continue, I left it at that, and stared as Fang started angrily cleaning his room. A minute or two passed, and I was tempted to just leave, but I'd already invited myself to a conversation, I didn't want to back down now.

"You clean when you're angry, too, huh?" I said, trying to get something out of him. He scoffed, which is something, I guess.

I slipped in his door to lean on the wall by his desk.

"So…" I said. "That argument sounded pretty heated…" Might as well put it out there. There's no other way I'll be able to get him to talk.

Fang stopped moving around his room and sat down hard on his bed, swinging a leg up and leaning against his headboard. His foot moved fast back and forth, like he was itching to move.

"Do you want to….talk?" What am I _saying? _This is _Fang_. "That was stupid," I said, "Of course you don't."

Fang looked up at me through his black hair with an _almost_ amused expression. I stepped towards him, maneuvering through his dirty laundry on the floor (_typical_).

Fang's lips moved, and I saw that he was saying something, but I had now idea what he was saying, it was too quiet.

"What?" I asked him.

"I've got wings," he said. I wanted to smile, but I was a little put off.

"Is that like code? Or, do you have feathery appendages on your back?"

"What do you think?" he said, giving me a look. I put my hands up in surrender.

"Alright, okay, I was just trying to be friendly," I said. Rolling my eyes, I turned to leave the room but Fang gave a huge sigh and I heard his head slam back against the wall. I swiveled to look at him.

"No, I'm trying to… I'm just your regular Snow White," he said. This time I laughed out loud. What a funny image. And what an irritating comment.

"Alright, see ya later, Fang," I said, shaking my head.

"No, Max," Fang said. I closed his door behind me, and plodded down the hall. On my way out the door, I heard Fang smashing stuff around, and I rolled my eyes.

_You try to be nice._

_Nice._ What a weird prospect for me.

* * *

**Please review, it means a lot! I'm not really sure if anyone still goes on fanfiction anymore or not, so it'd be nice to hear from you guys! Hope your spring is going great! Up here in Maine, we're still in deep snow :P It snowed like two hours ago.**

**So, I guess you guys didn't find out this chapter, it was a little too long.**

**Any guesses as to what Fang was trying to say? Shout out to the best guesses!**

**Also, I've been reading back on my reviews, and I'm just really thankful for all the support you guys have shown me! Special ****shootouts to Skylight Reality, who's always pushing an update and reviews pretty much every chapter (btw hope you're doin alright), desperatelyobvious, who _really_ takes a deeper look into the writing, all of you guests :3, Rainbow Reads, who's always invested, and countless others who take the time to read my stuff! It really means a lot!**


	15. I Double Planned

**I'd just like to start off by saying I'm sorry for such a long wait! I was frozen after last chapter, I had know idea what to do, and I was pretty much sure that I had ruined the story. Sometimes I just get that way with my writing I guess. But I've been writing a lot lately, which is good, and I've been working on an original story that I'm super excited about! I'm also in the middle of applying to art schools, so it's been pretty hectic. But I just got a huge desire to write another chapter, so, here you are!**

* * *

By the time I got home that night, I had calmed down a little bit. Did I really expect him to say anything less than some sarcastic comeback? It's not as if we're super close or anything. I mean, I'm not exactly a touchy feely person, and I'm not into the whole let's be nice and talk about feelings like sadness or whatever, but I'm not an asshole, either, if something's going down between people I know, I'm curious. I mean, I also want to know if they're okay. But just tell me you wouldn't have eavesdropped, and then gone in and asked, nicely, mind you, about it.

I went upstairs and flopped on my bed, phone in hand. I stared at the screen for a while, deciding whether or not to call JJ and talk to her. I put down my phone. JJ didn't need all of this. I'd probably just be wasting her time.

When Saturday rolled around, I woke up to the smell of bacon, and something sweet. A grumble in my tummy, I popped up to put some decent clothes on, and scuffled down the stairs, which had a nice, smooth banister decorating the steps, and ending in a fashionable curl. Hurrying into the kitchen, where all the action was happening, I saw Mom sitting at the table with a newspaper in one hand and a mug of joe in the other. Aaron stood at the stove, making bacon and pancakes. It was usually like this on the weekends, Aaron cleaning and cooking and Mom educating herself on the happenings of the world.

I sat down at the table across from my mom.

"Good morning, darling," she said, setting down her coffee and lowering the newspaper.

"Morning Mom," I said. "Breakfast smells good, Aaron."

"Thanks," he said, flipping some bacon and adding a sizzle to the end of his gratitude, almost like punctuation. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," I said, flipping my hair up into a loose pony. Mom scowled at me, disapproving of my doing hair at the table. Ignoring her stare, I rubbed my eyes to dispel any sleepy seeds I had in my eyes.

"Do you have any homework to do this weekend?" my mom asked.

I nodded my head against my fist begrudgingly. "I have about a billion things to do for English, Biology, and Global."

Mom nodded and took another sip of her coffee. Switching her attention back down to the paper she held in her hand. "Do you remember Mr. Edwinson?"

I thought for a moment. "My first grade teacher? Yeah."

"He's in the paper for publishing a children's book."

"That's nice," I said. "What's it called?"

"It says... its title is Native Colors, about a little Native American girl who runs away to live on her own, and creates her own living. It's supposed to be educational and fun."

I thought for a moment. "That sounds like something Georgia would love," I said. "Does it say where it's available?"

My mother perused the paper, searching for an answer to my question. She made a few ticking noises with her tongue, and then shook her head. "No, it doesn't say. I suppose you could always go visit him."

"Yeah," I agreed, as Aaron set down a plate of bacon and pancakes in front of me. "Thank you."

"Sure," he said, putting down a second plate in front of Mom. Then he sat down himself, and we ate together for a few minutes in silence.

"So, what are you up to today?" Mom asked me. "Doing anything with new friends? Or old friends?"

When she mentioned "old friends" I was suddenly hit by a metaphorical fist in the face. I had totally forgotten that I had made plans with JJ!

"Oh no," I said. "I double planned tonight..."

"Oh, that's gotta be awkward," Aaron started, chortling. "I mean, who are you going to choose?"

I rolled my eyes at him, and Mom did too.

"Come on, Honey," she said.

"I'll just have to tell JJ I can't come to her party," I decided. "I didn't really want to go to a party anyway."

"Yeah," Mom said. "I don't blame you. Too many people, too little space."

I nodded, and finished up my breakfast and got up to put the plate in the sink. "Thanks for breakfast, Aaron."

"Yup, no problem."

I ran up the beautiful stairs to my room and grabbed my phone off the bedside table. I dialed JJ's number and waited a few seconds while the ringing sounded. I hoped in vain that JJ wouldn't be too upset. I realized that I was becoming kind of attached to the people here already, and wanted to spend time with them. Hopefully JJ could understand that.

"Hello?" said a familiar voice on the other end of the line.

"JJ!" I said, registering how much I missed the sound of her voice.

"Max! Oh my goodness, how are you?" JJ said.

"Awesome, as usual," I laughed. "Listen, I totally pulled a Max tonight." JJ groaned from the other end.

"You double booked didn't you?" JJ surmised.

I gave an odd sound of confirmation. "I'm so sorry, JJ," I said, wishing she could just read my mind. If I didn't have to _tell_ her that I had chosen this new group of friends, it would be a lot easier. "It's just, I'm not sure I'm really in the mood for a party, tonight."

"Oh, yeah, that's fine," she said. It was hard not to hear the little bit of disappointment in her tone. "It's cool, it wasn't really super big, so it's fine."

"Oh, JJ," I said. Now I felt awful.

"No, really, we'll just have to schedule it for another time, it's fine," she said. She did sound a little bit more composed now.

"Yes, we'll have to do that," I said.

"So," she started, adopting a new tone. "What are you going to do tonight?"

I floundered for a few seconds, trying to find a way to put it that didn't utilize the word "party" as Nudge had called it. "Well, Nudge, did I tell you about her? She won a radio contest, and she invited me to the prize." Thinking for a second, I added, "It's some laser tag thing."

"Oh," JJ said. "Laser tag is so much more fun than a party," she admonished. "I think I'd have picked that, too," she laughed. I was reminded of all the times JJ, Sam, and I had played laser tag together, and suddenly wished she could come to the "party." I laughed too, hoping she was all good with me ditching her.

"So, what's Sam up to?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, I don't know. Um, I think he said he was going somewhere with his family today. He's good though. He has some kind of rash all over his back, so he haven't hung out much. I guess it's pretty contagious."

"Eeeh," I said. "That doesn't sound fun."

Over the phone, I could hear someone talking to JJ.

"Oh, Mac, I have to go, okay?" JJ said. I tried not to feel like she was still a little upset with me, and just didn't want to talk anymore.

"Yeah, sure," I said. "See ya later, JJ."

"Bye."

I was admittedly excited to play some laser tag with some new comrades, but I could never replace JJ, I know that deep down. I hope she knows too.

* * *

After spending a few hours on homework (some of the most boring hours of my life), and wasting time worrying if JJ was upset with me, I decided to head over to Ella's house and see what she was up to. Trudging downstairs and wrapping a sweater around me, I yelled to my Mom.

"I'm going to the Martinez residence!"

"Alright," she yelled back from somewhere inside. Shutting the door behind me, I started walking across the lawn towards Ella's house. I glanced to my left to see the woods behind our houses. I paused a moment, seeing something in the bushes move. There looked to be something tall moving some shrubs around. I tried to see further, rationalizing that it was probably just a temperamental squirrel, but it seemed like it was moving too many branches at once to be an animal. I started toward the trees, just a few steps. When I got close enough, the bushes stopped shaking.

Hair standing up on my arms, I booked it towards the Martinez house and knocked on the door rapidly. Dr. Martinez opened the door with a bright smile.

"Max! How are you?" she said.

"I'm good," I said, glancing over my shoulder. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Dr. Martinez said, stepping aside. I hurried in and shook off the weird feeling. "Are you alright?"

I glanced out the window on the door, and deciding my imagination must be playing tricks on me, I shook my head and laughed.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I think my brain is goofing with me, though."

Dr. Martinez looked puzzled for a minute, and then laughed. "Okay, dear. Ella!" she called up the stairs, "Max is here!"

There was some rumbling on the staircase and Ella stepped down to see me. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I don't know, I was bored I guess. Waiting in anticipation for some good laser tag."

"Me too," Ella said, leading me upstairs and to her room. "I have something to show you!"

Dr. Martinez walked to the edge of the stairs. "Are you girls hungry at all?"

Ella walked back to the top of the stairs, asking me if I was hungry.

"Sure," I said.

"Yes, Mother, we are hungry," Ella yelled down. "What are you making?"

"Uhh... You'll see!"

Ella laughed and ushered me into her room. "She doesn't even know," she said. I grinned and sat down on Ella's bed.

"So, what did you want to show me?" I asked, watching as Ella pushed back the bangs from her forehead. She smiled brightly and her brown eyes widened with glee. She moved to pull a box from her shelf and opened it for me to see. Sitting down on the bed, she turned to face me.

"So," Ella said, angling the box away from my view. "We've been playing Laser tag forever. It's just something we've always done, because it's like the only thing to do in this town. But every game, we have a few things that we do, like a tradition or ritual, or something. One of them, is that we wear 'ceremonial'" at this she lifted her hands to mime air quotes. "bandannas on our foreheads, for teams, and for being warriors. Something like that, we've never really said it out loud, it was more of a silent agreement that that is what these represented."

"Wow," I said, "That's kinda cool. When me and my friends went we just popped on the vests and shot each other."

Ella blushed. "Yeah, we do that, too."

"No, it's cool," I said. "We've just never done stuff like that. It's nice, you guys are really close." Ella became her cheerful self again, and she continued on with her explanation.

"Well, I thought, since you're going to be playing with us, you could use one of these."

Ella held up a red bandanna with my Name on it in sequins. Trying not to hate the decoration material, I did the best I could to squeal, even though squealing was not something I ever did on a regular basis.

"I love it, Ella! Oh my goodness, that's so nice," I beamed. "Really, that's so nice of you."

Even though I may not have been too excited about the sequins, I was very warm inside. Ella was really accepting me into her circle. I couldn't stop smiling.

"Yeah," she said, shrugging her shoulders modestly, "I just thought you should have one."

I was about to express my gratitude again, but the door opened and Dr. Martinez walked in with with two plates, each with a BLT and some potato chips.

"Max, I wasn't sure what chips you liked, so I just put a few of each on your plate, there are barbecue and salt and vinegar." She set a plate in my hands, and then a plate in Ella's.

"Thank you, Dr. Martinez," I said.

She gave me a warm smile. "No problem. Enjoy girls," she said, closing the door on her way out.

Ella and I sat and munched quietly for a few minutes. "Oh my goodness," I moaned. "This is so delicious."

"I know," she replied, mouth full of both sandwich and chips. "I have the best cook ever as a mom."

A few more minutes passed by of us chewing our meals, and then Ella's phone rang, and she picked it up. She shook her head from side to side, trying to chew enough of her bite to swallow before she answered the phone.

"Hello?" She said, mouth still half full of food. I swallowed and ran my tongue along my teeth, making sure I didn't have any morsels saved for later.

"Oh, hi Iggy," Ella said, blushing as she tried to swallow the rest of her mouthful. She shoved the phone in the hand I wasn't using to hold my sandwich, and mouthed the words _talk to him!_

"Hello?" I said.

"Hello? Max?" I heard Iggy's voice. "What happened to Ella? You didn't have to knock her out to talk to me you know," he said with a charming lilt in his voice. I rolled my eyes, and then realizing he couldn't see it, relayed it to him over the phone.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy."

"Oh, the pain," he said. "Anyways, where are you guys? I thought we were all meeting up at Fang's house before we went over. Ella needs to bring le ceremonial bando-box."

"The ceremonial bando-box?" I repeated, looking at Ella. She shrugged, and showed me the cover of the box laying beside her on the bed. Indeed, written on the top in sequins was _le Ceremonial Bando-Box_.

"Yeah, Ella will know what you mean," he said. "Just come over soon so we can split into teams and devise strategies."

Hoping my face expressed how impressed I felt, I looked at Ella and nodded. "Cool, we'll be over soon, I guess."

Iggy hung up the phone, and I passed Ella's device back to her.

"Sorry, my mouth was full."

I waved it off, shifting into a more comfortable position on her bed, picking up my sandwich to take a bite. "It's no big," I said, munching.

"So what did he want?" She asked, taking some chips and less than gracefully trying to shove them all in her mouth at the same time. I laughed, and repeated what Iggy had told me over the phone. "Oh," she said. "I forgot about that. We usually convene at Fang's house to plan our battles and make teams. His house is right in the middle of all of our houses, so we usually just hang out there."

I nodded, taking another bite of my sandwich. "Can we wait to finish our sandwiches?"

Ella looked at me sagely. "What makes you think we'd do otherwise?"

* * *

Ella and I decided to walk to Fang's house, as it was close enough, and there probably wouldn't be too much parking space. A few hundred feet from the driveway, we could see that our assumption was correct. Two cars were crowding together in the driveway, and a third was parked with one wheel on the sidewalk.

"Who parked that?" I asked. "That's awful."

Ella giggled. "That's Iggy's car. He's never been a very gifted driver," she admonished.

Ella and I stepped into the Worthers' home and were immediately bombarded with little girls. Georgia and Angel were giggling in between ferocious roars, attacking our legs like they were monsters, but did so bad a job of seeming scary that I couldn't help but pick Georgia up and tickle her. Screaming and wriggling in my arms, Georgia wiggled her way out and ran away, Angel following suit.

Laughing, I accompanied Ella to the living room, where Nudge, Iggy, Fang, and Gazzy were all settled comfortably, waiting for us.

"It's about time," Gazzy said, piping up from his seat on the couch next to Nudge. He hopped up and grabbed the Ceremonial Bando-Box from Ella's hands. Opening it and grabbing a handful of colored bandanna's he started to distribute them to their owners. He passed a black one with a surprising amount of sequins to Fang. He threw a blue one to Iggy, an Orange one to Nudge, and a purple one to Ella. Keeping the green one to himself, he said, "This one must be for you."

Throwing me the red bandanna, I smiled and slipped it on over my head. Everyone else did the same.

"Alright," Iggy said, sitting up from the chair in the corner of the room. "I have some great strategies planned out for tonight. Let's pick teams so I can unleash my genius."

I snickered, along with Nudge and Ella.

"I nominate Fang and Ella to be team captains. Anyone opposed?" Gazzy said to the whole room.

"I'm opposed!" Iggy said. "I want to be team captain! Did you not just hear me?"

"I'm opposed too," Nudge said. "I think, as this is her first time playing laser tag with us, Max should be team captain."

Ella sat down on the couch and looked up at me as I stepped towards the other chair, where Fang was plopped down with Angel and Georgia. The girls were playing with barbies again.

"We try to have one girl and one boy be team captains every time," Ella explained. "You up for being team captain?"

"Sure," I said. "Does that entail any special duties I should be aware of?"

"Nah," Iggy said. "Don't do anything. That makes it an easier job for me."

"Are we all okay with Iggy and Max being the team captains?" Gazzy asked. "Fang?"

"Yeah, it's cool," Fang said stonily, purposely smashing Barbie's car into mini-Georgia and Sally. There were outcries of protest and the girls gathered their toys and scuttled up the stairs. Fang sniggered.

Everyone nodded their assent and Gazzy clapped his hands together. "Alright, Max, Iggy, Pick your teams."

* * *

**I'd also like to end by apologizing again. Thank you for your patience, I appreciate you so much! Also, I apologize deeply for any grammatical errors or spelling errors, I did my best to proofread it quickly, and I promise next time it'll be better!**


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